Hmmm. This sounds a bit like a sales pitch against “dirty coal” in support of the recent EPA Mercury ruling instead of regular geological research. I question this research claim because they only have evidence that there were spikes of Mercury during those events, not that they caused or accelerated the extinctions. The PR states: “they have discovered a new culprit likely involved in the annihilation…” but that’s an assumption on their part. Further, no one has a good handle (though they claim volcanoes set coal beds on fire) on what actually caused the PT extinction event. A number of theories on what caused the PT event abound, and the science is not settled.
From the University of Calgary
Earth’s massive extinction: The story gets worse
New finding on mercury-volcanic link could re-write history on past annihilations
Scientists have uncovered a lot about the Earth’s greatest extinction event that took place 250 million years ago when rapid climate change wiped out nearly all marine species and a majority of those on land. Now, they have discovered a new culprit likely involved in the annihilation: an influx of mercury into the eco-system.
“No one had ever looked to see if mercury was a potential culprit. This was a time of the greatest volcanic activity in Earth’s history and we know today that the largest source of mercury comes from volcanic eruptions,” says Dr. Steve Grasby, co-author of a paper published this month in the journal Geology. “We estimate that the mercury released then could have been up to 30 times greater than today’s volcanic activity, making the event truly catastrophic.”
Grasby is a research scientist at Natural Resources Canada and an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Benoit Beauchamp, professor of geology at the University of Calgary, says this study is significant because it’s the first time mercury has been linked to the cause of the massive extinction that took place during the end of the Permian.
“Geologists, including myself should be taking notes and taking another look at the other five big extinction events,” says Beauchamp, also a co-author.
During the late Permian, the natural buffering system in the ocean became overloaded with mercury contributing to the loss of 95 per cent of life in the sea.
“Typically, algae acts like a scavenger and buries the mercury in the sediment, mitigating the effect in the oceans,” says lead-author Dr. Hamed Sanei, research scientist at Natural Resources Canada and adjunct professor at the University of Calgary. “But in this case, the load was just so huge that it could not stop the damage.”
About 250 million years ago, a time long before dinosaurs ruled and when all land formed one big continent, the majority of life in the ocean and on land was wiped out. The generally accepted idea is that volcanic eruptions burned though coal beds, releasing CO2 and other deadly toxins. Direct proof of this theory was outlined in a paper that was published by these same authors last January in Nature Geoscience.
The mercury deposition rates could have been significantly higher in the late Permian when compared with today’s human-caused emissions. In some cases, levels of mercury in the late Permian ocean was similar to what is found near highly contaminated ponds near smelters, where the aquatic system is severely damaged, say researchers.
“We are adding to the levels through industrial emissions. This is a warning for us here on Earth today,” adds Beauchamp. Canada has taken a lead role in reducing emissions internationally. In North America, at least, there has been a steady decline through regulations controlling mercury.
No matter what happens, this study shows life’s tenacity. “The story is one of recovery as well. After the system was overloaded and most of life was destroyed, the oceans were still able to self clean and we were able to move on to the next phase of life,” says Sanei.
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About 250 million years ago, a time long before dinosaurs ruled and when all land formed one big continent, the majority of life in the ocean and on land was wiped out. The generally accepted idea is that volcanic eruptions burned though coal beds, releasing CO2 and other deadly toxins. Direct proof of this theory was outlined in a paper that was published by these same authors last January in Nature Geoscience.
Always, always, some carbon-based fuel is the problem. Well, as a geologist I can tell you that the probablility of a volcano coming up through a coal bed is pretty low. I can also tell you that the amount of coal that would be burned in such an occurrence would also be pretty low. Indeed, I understand all the fossil fuels we have currently have could be burned and they’d only increase the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to about 600 ppm, which is nothing, really. It takes 10,000 ppm before CO2 becomes a problem for humans and other mammals. Their inclusion of “other deadly toxins” from burning coal beds is a mystery–sure burning coal puts other pollutants into the air, but the way coal beds are sandwiched between sedimentary strata (that’s what makes them coal, btw), it’s hard to imagine that the above scenario is realistic.
Shooter says:
January 5, 2012 at 6:28 pm
@ur momisugly James Sexton Loved the conspiracy theorist reference. Most anti-conspiracy theorists call climate change skeptics CTs…but that’s funny, considering that most are just ordinary people, LOL.
But indeed, what a shameful society.
======================================================
Thanks Shooter! Sometimes I think no one reads my comments. 🙂
OMG! The science is not settled on what happened 250,000,000 years ago! How can that be? They’ve has all that time to figure it out. Maybe it’s in our genetic memory. We need to see a medium!
It would take a ridiculous amount of mercury to alter its concentration in the oceans enough to do what they say. But, in a deck where half the cards are Jokers, they can make up anything they want.
Zachary has a link to the original. lots more to read and respond to:
5 Jan: PlanetSave: Zachary Shahan: Republican Presidential Candidates Win Climate B.S. of the Year Award
Climate scientists and communicators got together to come up with a list of 2011′s biggest climate B.S.-spewers recently. B.S. standing for Bad Science, of course. Here’s the full list, via Climate Progress:
by Peter Gleick
Fifth Place: Anthony Watts for his BEST, and worst, climate hypocrisy…
Steve McIntyre
And finally, the “dishonorable” mention of the year goes to Steve McIntyre for his despicable smear of climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann of Penn State University (and to Anthony Watts for amplifying that smear) by drawing a parallel between the Penn State pedophilia investigation and their separate scientific investigation of questions about climate research (in which Professor Mann has been completely and repeatedly exonerated). Joe Romm discusses this disgusting case here.
http://planetsave.com/2012/01/05/republican-presidential-candidates-win-climate-b-s-of-the-year-award/
George E. Smith – the Minimata disaster was no alarmist hoax – it was a genuine mass poisoning of people who were exposed to a lethal mercury compound. While it was an appalling episode in industrial history, it has also been used ever since not only to demonise mercury, but to leverage wild claims about ‘heavy metals’ generally.
But as PPs have said, throwing the term ‘mercury’ around is meaningless – just like the way ‘carbon’ is used instead of ‘carbon dioxide’. Mercury is neither good nor bad intrinsically, and mercury compounds range from beneficial (tooth fillings) to lethal (see above).
Like Anthony, my Spidey sense was tweaked by the rhetoric in the summary – deadly climate change, CO2 pollution etc. The suggestion that mercury caused mass extinctions is purely speculative. And, the timing is … interesting.
From where I first saw this story, they were talking about COAL FLY ASH, on the Canadian Government site.
Here:http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/com/elements/issues/58/coacen-eng.php
Even this story in Nature Geoscience does not mention mercury, it mentions toxic metals.
Here:http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n2/full/ngeo1069.html
My old geology Professor at Strathclyde University told the following story in his lectures.
The phrase “Mad as a Hatter”from Alice in Wonderland. Hatters used to use mercury to smooth the felt inside of the hats and a lot of hatters ended up mad.
There are a lot of lead and zinc mines in Ireland – one of the biggest in the world is at Navan to the northwest of Dublin. During the discovery and exploration phase of these deposits in the late 60’s and 70’s a similar deposit ,but which contained a large amount of mercury, was found at a place called Gortdrum in County Tipperary. The explorers were trying to find the land owner and they discovered that he was in the lunatic asylum. It turns out that the family’s water well was drilled into the deposit and that over the years they had ingested a fair amount of mercury….
George E. Smith; said:
January 5, 2012 at 7:46 pm
“Now I remember that that was also when I decided to make myself a collection of ALL of the 92 then known elements…”
————————————-
How much astatine did you collect? 🙂
Philip Nolan says:
January 5, 2012 at 8:38 pm
“I am no scientist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. ( think I might have been down the hall…)……yada yada yada…(all good stuff, just a shamless Seinfield reference)… ?
I don’t get it.”
Look what they did with CO2…and its not toxic…now do you get it? Its all about their worldview…which is radically different than most peoples…I am just saying.
Mark and two Cats says:
January 5, 2012 at 10:16 pm
George E. Smith; said:
January 5, 2012 at 7:46 pm
“Now I remember that that was also when I decided to make myself a collection of ALL of the 92 then known elements…”
————————————-
How much astatine did you collect? 🙂
He had TONS…he kept it right next to his Polonium!
(sorry if that is piling on…it’s been one of those days…I guess its better metaphorically kicking Jorge than my dog…
If your teeth are filled with fulminate of mercury, I would advise you against biting down on any very crunchy foods such as, say, a nice hard almond. Ensign Pulver’s experience in the laundry scene in Mr. Roberts comes to mind.
🙂
Susan says:
January 5, 2012 at 9:53 pm
From where I first saw this story, they were talking about COAL FLY ASH, on the Canadian Government site.
There are alpha emitters in fly ash too (e.g. U, Th). A large fraction of the glass spherules have diameters in the 5 to 10 µm range, just the right size to go into the lungs and stay there. While there, the tissues are irradiated with potent alpha. Strangely, the regulators worry about radon you breathe in and out again immediately, but don’t bother to consider potentially serious longer-term exposure and cancer potential of fly ash.
“releasing CO2 and other deadly toxins.”
Puhleeaze.
FAIL
Large scale burning of coal isn’t feasible for the simple reason coal is underground with limited exceptions. Underground coal burns very slowly because oxygen is always limited.
A much more plausible scenario is large scale burning of dried out peat bogs. Peat is merely uncompressed coal.
Imagine a swamp a few hundred times larger than the Okavango. Entirely possible on Gondowanaland.
The climate cools, possibly from volcanic eruptions. A cooler climate is a drier climate and the peat bog starts to dry out. One lightning strike is all that is needed to start a fire that would burn for decades if not centuries reinforcing the volcanic cooling and further drying the peat bog.
To give an idea of how large scale the smoke from peat fires can be, here is a satellite image from 1997 that shows thick smoke from peat fires covering an area roughly 3,000 by 1,000 kilometres.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TOMS_indonesia_smog_lrg.jpg
Back in my school days in the early 1950’s one of the tricks was to roll a small tube out of silver paper from a packet of cigarettes (don’t ask), fold and seal one end, carefully insert a drop of mercury, fold over the open end, then rattle the mercury in the tube carefully so the ends sealed properly and became rounded. If you had done it right you could approach some unsuspecting female and hold out your hand and say “See me llttle worm!” The sight of the little upright jiggling silver tube in your hand caused much satisfying consternation. With practice you could even make the little silver worm do cartwheels.
Nearly all species went extinct 250mya you say?
I’m glad it wasn’t us that killed them I say. (big hello to George Carlin in Heaven)
More marine species died than land species. It was a giant undrsea volcano or three wot dunnit
@ur momisugly George E. Smith
” …in any case my teeth are full of fillings of fulminate of Mercury or some such..”
I hope that’s a mistake. That’s what is in Primer Caps. For bullets.
Yes, Mercury and many Mercury compounds are toxic. And Mercury poisoning is not something to take lightly. No, the tiny amount in a fluorescent light won’t wipe out an entire neighborhood. Or even do much harm. One should probably refrain from cleaning up Mercury spills by licking up the debris. The amount of Mercury (and other heavy metals) in a single ton of coal is very small. The amount of airborne Mercury from all the tons of US coal burned every year is high enough to be a concern — and to cause “them” to recommend that Great Lakes fish be consumed only once a week. That may be overreaction. Or it may not. You don’t want the hear that coal is a dirty fuel that quite possibly endangers folks who live downwind/downstream. Tough. In general reality doesn’t care what you want to hear.
As for the Pm-T extinction event. It is one of three major extinction events associated with massive vulcanism. Pm-Tr(SIberian Traps), Tr-Jr (Newark Traps), K-T (Deccan Traps). the other three major events — O-S and two in the Cambrian — are older, probably less severe, hazier, and are not clearly associated with vulcanism.
Personally, I doubt that Mercury played a major role in the Pm-Tr extinction event. But it’s interesting to know that it could have. I assume that someone will go look at Mercury levels at the other extinctions. Better that than spending money on more or less worthless climate models. I can understand a handful of GCMs just to verify that, given our current state of ignorance about climate, they are not very useful. Why do we need dozens?
The thesis that the P-Tr extinction might have been caused by vulcanism burning coal beds and releasing CO2 strikes me as pretty weird. Paleo CO2 charts do show a spike at the end of the Permian, but nothing all that dramatic. Of course, I personally think that our ideas of past CO2 levels (beyond the million years are so of direct measurements from ice cores) are more fiction than fact. I suppose that given numbers and some hard evidence, I could be talked around.
Philip Bradley says:
January 5, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Large scale burning of coal isn’t feasible for the simple reason coal is underground with limited exceptions. Underground coal burns very slowly because oxygen is always limited.
==================
In general, I agree with you. BUT, keep in mind that massive shield vulcanism like the Siberian traps could conceivably put large quantities of molten rock in direct contact with coal seams. I suppose that it is possible that the heat could be sufficient to gasify entire coal seams on a regional basis. Sort of natural “town gas”? Even though the gases might not “burn” until they got to the surface where there is Oxygen, they probably would leak to the surface pretty quickly in geologic terms … maybe … I suppose.
Suppose all genes that survived can take a looot of mercury then – right? 🙂
George E. Smith; says:
January 5, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Re Mercury poisoning
Google “Mad as a Hatter”, again not conclusive evidence but interesting none the less. I suppose dinosaurs may have made hats?
This is a good’un as wind up stories go. Rule number one in Toxicology – the poison is in the doesage! CO2 is not toxic, well no more than dihydrogen monoxide is when you breath too much of it in! UK guidelines for CO2 is 5% for Health & Safety purposes, although those in charge are allowed to make a judgement (Heaven forbide we ever make any of those here in the PDREU) to permit levels to rise ot 10-15% locally! Now, if memory serves, (see below ;-)) there was a lot of cafuffle many years ago regarding mercury levels in fish due to the incident already cited above. The BMA issued guidelines for fish consumption in the UK as a result with the usual mixed messages we tend to get from them, as they have been saying for the last 10 years we must eat more oily fish for our health. In Japan, they eat vastly more fiah than we do here in UK, yet apart from Minimata, I have heard nothing about increaed incidents of mercury poisoning in Japan, & what’s all this sushi crap all about I hear nothing about discouraging trendy youngs eating bucket loads of the stuff these days? It’s rather like the BMA & its drink awareness campaign – 3 units per day for men & 2 units a day for women, based on the sound scientific procedure of picking numbers at random as they conceded a couple of years ago because they “felt” it was the appropriate level of consumption!
I also suspect they are in league with Al Gorical here, & this proves it imho http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16425522
“Don’t listen to the old people” he said (excluding himself that is) it doesn’t say much to me other than it may be significant then again it may not be, or it just says a lot about UK civil servants – I should know I used to be one in my dark past! I have probably forgotten more than I know at 53-54. 🙂
They even get the timing of the dinos wrong:
Nope:
Original paper: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1708/1107
So it’s a while before they “ruled”, but not that long.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6906603.stm
It is hard to describe just how big the Siberian Traps volcanoes were. Over a period of about 3 million years with a peak period of about 1 million years, enough material was erupted to cover the entire US in 1 km of magma, ash and debris. A super-volcano, every few decades, lasting over 3 million years with a peak period when 5 super-volcanoes were in constant eruption, it is no surprise that many species went extinct.
The peak volcanic period coincides exactly with the peak of the Permian extinction event. The dO18 isotope data right at the timeline says that temperatures fell by up to 7.0C (not rose because of CO2 as the pro-AGW set likes to say). The Permian was very warm, proabably the warmest period in the last 500 million years, but during these volcanoes and, especially at the extinction event, there is a large downspike in the temperature proxies.
It was a bad day on Planet Earth and there was untold amounts of contaminants in the atmosphere (beyond mercury) and then falling out on the surface. There may have been whole decades when solar radiation fell by 25% or so. What caused the extinction? That is obvious enough.
This mercury evidence should put the science back on track because it is so specific and clear. We shouldn’t see so many CO2- Permian extinction links anymore. But there was already a large group of specialists on the event who have been writing papers together about the event and tying it to the Siberian Traps volcanoes and that hasn’t stopped the CO2-based climate modelers/CO2 causes extinction -types from publishing