ocean's floor) to melt, releasing vast amounts of methane gas (carbon twelve) into the atmosphere. I might point out, currently methane gas (carbon twelve) is being released in large quantities into the atmosphere as the polar oceans warm!
Which theory is correct is still under debate, but the end result was the same in either case, a near extinction of all life on this planet two hundred and fifty million years ago. Scientist originally thought the Permian extinction must have been a very quick event, like the extinction of the dinosaurs which lasted less than ten thousand years. They believed this to be true because if it were of a longer period, the extinction would not have been as drastic as creatures and plant life would have evolved to the changing climatic conditions with each new generation. In actuality, the extinction was a three part process lasting about eighty thousand years.
So to sum up the Permian extinction, the first part was the warming of the Earth's climate with the flood basalt volcanoes which wiped out about half of the land animals and plants. The second part was the warming of the oceans and depletion of the oxygen in them, this single event eliminated almost all living things in the oceans. Finally the coup-d-grace was the third event. With the noxious gasses rolling out of the oceans (whether it was hydrogen sulfide or carbon twelve is irrelevant) and finishing off most living life on the continents. Any one single event by its self would not have had such a devastating effect, it was the perfect storm to extinction.
The Permian extinction was not the last time the Earth had a sudden loss of life. As recent as eighteen thousand years ago there was another radical temperature swing, only this time it was an ice age. Geologist know this to be true by studying rock formations dating from this time period. There have been a few guesses as to the origin and cause of the climatic change of at least ten degrees, but no one knows for sure why there was this sudden change in global temperature.
Some one hundred and twenty five million years ago, the Earth rebounded from the devastation of the Permian Era extinction. Oxygen producing algae formed all over the planet and gave new life to the oceans and at the same time revitalized the atmosphere. This new revitalization of the planet gave birth to dinosaurs and lush plants. Dinosaurs once thought to be only cold blooded animals (as reptiles are), today scientist believe dinosaurs may have been somewhere between cold blooded and warm blooded, as were a lot of the creatures of the Permian Era.
In any event, the dinosaurs and the mega-therm plants thrived in the moist hot oxygen rich greenhouse climate partially created by the numerous active volcanoes on the evolving planet. The abundance of water and the oxygen rich atmosphere now on the planet were the perfect breeding ground for all living things, plant and animal. It seemed these reptilian like creatures would dominate the planet for the rest of history, but it was not to be.
About sixty five and a half million years ago a supposed large asteroid (that is believed to be the left overs of the creation of this solar system) came screaming through space and slammed into Earth in the waters off the coast of what is now Mexico. It wasn't until recent times and the advent of photographs taken from outside our atmosphere, that the crater from the impact was evident in the ocean and revealed its self visually to mankind for the first time.
The resulting mass of dirt and rocks tossed into the upper atmosphere from the impact of this large asteroid, along with the clouds of spurting gases from the massive volcanoes scattered around the planet had the opposite effect of the Permian extinction. The dust clouds were so thick that the Sun's warming radiation was not able to penetrate the atmosphere. This caused a year round winter freeze (an ice age) that lasted for at least ten thousand years. The deep freeze wiped out the vast majority of all creatures and plants that relied on the nurturing radiation of the Sun. As the plant life died off first, then so did the plant eating animals, with no food (herbivores) left for the carnivores, they too, starved and died off.
The almost total loss of the dinosaurs occurred in a relatively short period of time, as stated less than ten thousand years. Geologist can see the rock and sediment formations from this time period, no dinosaur fossils are found above this layer of the Earth's crust. This layer separating the dinosaur period from the non-dinosaur period is called the KT boundary (a relatively short period of time).
Although most biologist believe in the complete extinction of all dinosaurs, there are many creatures of today that have dinosaur genes in their DNA., IE most birds have genetic links to the once dominant dinosaurs, a perfect example of this is the average chicken. Biologist have discovered that chicken's retain 'dormant' genes that can be 'turned on' and either create more tail vertebrae or grow scales instead of feathers. So instead of a total extinction, some remnants of the dinosaurs DNA endures today.
There have been several ice ages on this planet as a result of different events. A few of these ice ages were caused by the shifting of the Earth's crust. As the continents moved toward each other they cut off the natural convection flow in the Earth's oceans. The warm waters of the equatorial region were unable to flow naturally to the cooler polar oceans causing them to freeze over, slowly ice encompassed all of the planet's oceans and land masses. Later, as volcanoes pushed lava up through the oceans of ice on the surface, land masses began to grow where there were none before and the land masses continued to shift. These volcanoes produced enough carbon and other gases in the atmosphere to eventually warm the surface of the Earth by creating a green house effect once again that thawed the planet.
Early in the history of the Earth, about one point eight billion years ago, there was just one large land mass on the surface of the planet, it has been called Rodinia. As time passed, Rodinia split into smaller continents as the Earth's mantle moved and shifted and pulled the single land mass apart. Then once again about three hundred million years ago as the land masses moved on the crust of the Earth, one large continent was formed once again, this new continent is known as Pangaea About ninety five million years ago Pangaea also started to be pulled apart, leaving behind what we recognize today as the continents of this world.
The fact that the continents were pulled apart during the dinosaur era would explain why similar creatures remains are found on most continents, while at the same time some species were isolated from the rest of the world and are only found on certain continents. Our current continents are still constantly moving as the crust of the Earth continues to shift, this shifting is the main reason for the formation of mountains as the plates slide under each other, and this movement is also the major cause of earthquakes as the mantel continues to shift.
The extensive deep freeze brought on by the movement of the land masses, again and again eliminated almost all but the hardiest of life forms. The salvation was the natural eruption of the then young planet's volcanoes. As stated, these massive volcanoes pushed lava through the ice and the ensuing gases produced a greenhouse effect leading to global warming, the warming of the atmosphere and the melting of all but the polar ice caps, time after time this healed the planet through natural evolution.
It has seemed that every time life on this planet progressed and had a firm foothold, some natural or celestial catastrophe would crop up and wipe out almost all but a few life forms. These examples are just a glimpse of the natural evolution of this planet, as is that of all planets in the Universe.
So when the next natural catastrophe occurs, don't blame anyone, it is only the natural evolution of this planet. Some believe that 'God' is punishing them because of their misdeeds. There is no 'God' handing out punishment or condemnation. So don't bother to pray for 'your god' to help you, it is just the nature of this planet and the natural evolution of a world such as ours.
Asteroids are probably the most likely and imminent threat to Earth (other than mankind himself). Although the asteroid belt is very stable between Mars and Jupiter, sometimes these bodies bump into each other and an otherwise stable orbit gets knocked out of line, changing its orbit through the
solar system. Some of these rogue masses may also originate way out in the Kuiper Belt. These rogue asteroids can, and do fly through the solar system on new trajectories posing the threat of an impact with Earth.
With the advancement of tracking telescopes, we have seen many near-Earth hits over the last several decades. The science is advancing to the point that we could have many years or even decades to plan for an impending impact, but the truth be known, today we only know of about ten percent of the near-Earth object's trajectories in our solar system. The fate of the dinosaurs was sealed by the impact of a large asteroid in the region of the Yucatan peninsula some sixty five million years ago (although some scientist believe one impact could not have caused the mass extinction by its self), is mankind destined for the same fate?
One of the more recent and visible asteroid or large meteor impacts occurred between thirty and fifty thousand years ago in what is now Arizona. The resulting crater is about two hundred meters deep and over eight hundred meters across, it is aptly named, Meteor Crater. Still yet, the most recent impact of large proportion occurred as