The Smoking Gun For The Permian Extinction Reportedly Found

Volcanic eruptions in Canada 'caused largest mass 
extinction' 250m years ago by Graham Smith, Daily Mail
January 24, 2011‎
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1349981/Volcanic-eruptions-Canada-caused-largest-mass-extinction-250m-years-ago.html

(Note: the headline badly garbles what the paper concludes.)

Calgary researchers link mass extinction to volcanic ash
Calgary Sun, Jenna McMurray , ‎Jan. 23, 2011‎
http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2011/01/23/17004071.html

Evidence in Canadian Arctic points to volcanoes as 
cause of massive extinction, Mark Iype and Lea Storry, 
Postmedia News, January 23, 2011
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Evidence+Canadian+Arctic+points+volcanoes+cause+massive+extinction/4152438/story.html

Massive volcanic eruptions + coal fires = the Great Dying
By John Timmer.
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/01/massive-volcanic-eruptions-coal-fires-the-great-dying.ars

The paper is:

Grasby, S. E., H. Sanei, and B. Beauchamp, 2011, 
Catastrophic dispersion of coal fly ash into oceans 
during the latest Permian extinction. Nature 
geoscience. Published online 23 January 2011
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo1069.html

Yours,

Paul H.

PDF Files of Papers About the terminal Permian Extinction Event(s)

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 23 08:03:10 EDT 2009

Dear Listmembers,

Below are some papers and their PDF files.

1. PDF Files of Papers About the terminal Permian Extinction Event(s)

Retallack, G. J., and A. H. Jahren. 2008. Methane release
from igneous intrusion of coal during Late Permian extinction
events. Journal of Geology. Vol. 116, pp. 1-20.

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/jahren/PAPERS/RetallackJahren2008.pdf

Retallack, G. J., T. L. Greaver, and A. H. Jahren. 2007.
Return to Coalsack Bluff and the Permian-Triassic boundary in
Antarctica. Global and Planetary Change. Vol. 55, pp. 90-108.

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/jahren/PAPERS/Retallack2007GlobalandPlanetaryChange.pdf

Retallack, G. J., C. A. Metzger, T. L. Greaver, A. H. Jahren,
R. M. H. Smith, and N. D. Sheldon, 2006, Middle-Late Permian
mass extinction on land. Geological Society of America
Bulletin. vol. 118, no. 11, pp. 1398-1411.

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/jahren/PAPERS/Retallacketal2006.pdf

Retallack, G. J., A. H. Jahren, N. D. Sheldon, R. Chakrabarti,
C. A. Metzger and R. M. H. Smith, 2005, The Permian-Triassic
boundary in Antarctica. Antarctic Science. vol. 17(2), 241-258.

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/jahren/PAPERS/RetallackJahren2005.pdf

Links to the PDF files of these and other papers can be
found at the publications page of A. Hope Jahren, Ph.D. at:

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/jahren/JAHRENpublications.html

2. Gas Venting and Permian and Jurassic Environmental Crises

Svensen, H., S. Planke, A. G. Polozov, N. Schmidbauer, F. Corfu,
Y. Y. Podladchikov and B. Jamtveit, 2009, Siberian gas venting
and the end-Permian environmental crisis. Earth and Planetary
Science Letters. vol 227, no. 3-4, pp. 490-500.

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_EPSL_2009.pdf

Grocke, D. R., S. M. Rimmer, E. E. Yoksoulian, B. Cairncross,
H. Tsikos, and J. van Hunen, 2008, No evidence for thermogenic
methane release in coal from the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous
province. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 277,
no. 1-2, pp. 204-212.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.10.022

Svensen, H., S. Planke, L. Chevallier, A. Malthe-Sørenssen,
F. Corfu and B. Jamtveit, 2007, Hydrothermal venting of
greenhouse gases triggering Early Jurassic global warming.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 256, no. 3-4,
pp. 554-566

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_etal_EPSL_07.pdf

Svensen, H. B. Jamtveit S. Planke, and L. Chevallier, 2006,
Structure and evolution of hydrothermal vent complexes in
the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Journal of the Geological
Society, London. Vol. 163, pp. 671–682.

http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/Downloads/Svensen_etal_GSL_06.pdf
http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_etal_GSL_06.pdf

Svensen, H., S. Planke, L. Chevallier, A. Malthe-Sørenssen,
B. Corfu, and B. Jamtveit, 2007, Hydrothermal venting of
greenhouse gases triggering Early Jurassic global warming.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 256, pp. 554-566.

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_etal_EPSL_07.pdf

Lock, B. E., J. A. Robey, H. Svensen, S. Planke, B. Jamtveit,
and L. Chevallier Discussion on structure and evolution of
hydrothermal vent complexes in the Karoo Basin, South Africa.
Journal of the Geological Society, London. vol. 164,
pp. 477–479.

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_etal_GSL_Discussion07.pdf

Jamveit, B., H. Svensen, J. J., Podladchikov, and S. Planke,
2004, Hydrothermal vent complexes associated with sill \
intrusions in sedimentary basins. Geological Society of
London, Special Publication no. 234, pp. 233-241.

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Jamtveit_etal_04.pdf

Sevensen, H., G. Bebout, A. Kronz, L. Li, S. Planke,
L. Chevallier, and B. Jamtveit, 2008, Nitrogen
geochemistry as a tracer of fluid flow in a hydrothermal
vent complex in the Karoo Basin, South Africa.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Vol. 72, pp. 4929-4947.

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Svensen_etal_GCA_Nitrogen_08.pdf

Links to the PDF files of the above and other publications
Can be found at:

http://folk.uio.no/hensven/publications.htm

Another interesting web site is:

Large Igneous Provinces Commission
http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/index.html
http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/downloads.html

Yours,

Paul VH.

Coal Methane Contributed Late Permian Extinctions ????

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 21 16:23:22 EST 2007

Dear friends,

There is an interesting paper about how coal methane
might have contributed to Late Permian extinctions.

It is:

Retallack, G. J., and A. H. Jahren. 2007, Methane Release
from Igneous Intrusion of Coal during Late Permian
Extinction Events. The Journal of Geology. vol. 116, pp. 1–20

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/524120

In part the abstract read:

“Unusually large and locally variable carbon isotope excursions
coincident with mass extinctions at the end of the Permian
Period (253 Ma) and Guadalupian Epoch (260 Ma) can be
attributed to methane outbursts to the atmosphere. .... On
paleogeographic maps, the most marked carbon isotope
excursions form linear arrays back to plausible methane
sources: end-Permian Siberian Traps and Longwood-Bluff
intrusions of New Zealand and end-Guadalupian Emeishan
Traps of China. Intrusion of coal seams by feeder dikes to
flood basalts could create successive thermogenic methane
outbursts of the observed timing and magnitude, ...
Methane released by fracturing and heating of coal during
intrusion of large igneous provinces may have been a
planetary hazard comparable with bolide impact.”

This paper concluded:

“Addition of the end-Guadalupian case to the better known
end-Permian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous cases
makes coincidence less likely, and copious generation of
methane by intrusion of coals supplies ample killing power.
Like meteorite and comet impacts, thermogenic methane
outbursts may have been significant hazards to life on Earth.”

Yours,

Paul H.