Li Mingsong and his collaborators found that a large amount of rapid carbon emissions in the Siberian Volcanic Province led to the mass extinction of organisms at the end of the Permian

Imagination of the mass extinction at the end of the Permian
.

The deadly Siberian lava flowed into the sea 250 million years ago, the last glimpse of prehistoric life

Li Mingsong, Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, and Assistant Professor Cui Ying, Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA (graduated from the 2008 master class of Peking University School of Earth and Space), and Professor Wolfram M.
Kürschner, University of Oslo, Norway, to the late Permian A systematic study of organic geochemistry, astrochronology, and earth system models has been carried out on the biological extinction event in the last century.
It is believed that the rapid release of large amounts of CO ₂ in the Great Volcanic Rock Province of Siberia led to the end-Permian biological extinction
.

The research results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) under the title " Massive and rapid predominantly volcanic CO ₂ emission during the end-Permian mass extinction "

The end-Permian mass extinction of 250 million years ago was the most tragic mass extinction event in the Phanerozoic.
More than 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species became extinct
.

Finding out the process and causes of this mass extinction has always been a hot issue in the field of earth sciences

The research team conducted a large number of organic geochemical analyses on two well-preserved sedimentary rock boreholes from the Finnmark platform in Norway, including the molecular abundance of short-chain and long-chain n-alkanes, molecular organic carbon isotopes, whole-rock carbon isotopes, and plants.
Measurement of the ratio of alkanes to pristane and the abundance of plant sporopollen
.

In organic geochemical analysis, the changes in the abundance of short-chain and long-chain n-alkanes represent the changes in the abundance of marine algae or bacteria and terrestrial higher plants that use C ₃ photosynthesis, respectively

The study used high-resolution natural gamma logging data for astrochronological analysis, and found that the average deposition rate of the studied boreholes was as high as 22 cm per thousand years, which was much higher than that of most marine sections and was a high-precision Astronomical chronology research provides materials and an opportunity to solve the hot issue of the duration of the mass extinction at the end of the Permian
.

The calculation results show that the carbon isotope drift event accompanying the mass extinction at the end of the Permian lasted 110,000 years, and its activation lasted 15,000 years

The highlight of this study is the use of molecular carbon isotope data and astronomical cycle-constrained age models to invert the Earth system model.
The rate of atmospheric CO ₂ release from the Late Permian to the Early Triassic and the paleo-climate and paleo-climate were calculated.
Environmental response
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First of all, the advantage of molecular carbon isotopes is that they reflect specific biological types.

Through comparison with the ancient seawater temperature and pH proxy index data, the research team concluded that the large amount of CO ₂ released during the eruption of the Great Siberian Igneous Province caused global warming of up to 15 degrees Celsius and a decrease in pH value of 1 unit, resulting in 90%.
% Of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species are extinct
.

This study believes that once environmental changes exceed a critical threshold, it may lead to an irreversible mass extinction event
.

This also provides a warning for today's climate change

The corresponding authors of this study are Wolfram M.
Kürschner, Cui Ying, and Li Mingsong.
Other collaborators include Dr.
Elsbeth E.
van Soelen from the University of Oslo in Norway and Francien Peterse, an assistant professor at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands
.

This research was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, the Natural Science Foundation of the United States, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China

Paleogeographic map of the end of the Permian

Organic Geochemical Data

Astrochronological analysis

Earth system model simulation results