510 million years ago, a series of violent volcanic eruptions completely altered the climate and contributed to the first great mass extinction of these animal and plant species.
This has been corroborated by a team of scientists from the Australian University of Curtin using radioactive techniques to precisely measure the date of the eruptions in the province of Kalkarindji.
The study, published in the journal Geology and directed by the professor of Applied Geology Fred Jourdan, reveals that the volcanic activity in the area covered an area of more than 2 million square kilometers of the North and West Territory of the oceanic country with lava. .
Jourdan and his team have proven that the eruptive phenomenon occurred at the same time as the Early Cambrian extinction , between 510 and 511 million years ago, and that it wiped out a significant amount of complex multicellular life.
The extinction supposed the disappearance of 50% of the species, altered the climate and produced a decrease of oxygen in the oceans and a significant release of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. As a consequence, temperatures dropped a few tenths of a degree in the years after the eruption.
Scientists have compared the process that occurred in Kalkarindji province with other volcanic regions, and have seen a similar process of emissions of sulfur dioxide and other greenhouse gases, accompanied by climatic changes. According to Jourdan, these rapid thermal oscillations caused many species to have problems adapting to the changes, which eventually led to their extinction.
