What made Jurassic creatures extinct is "reviving"?

(NLĐO) - Limestone from an Italian town has revealed a Jurassic mass extinction event and what scientists are calling a "warning from the abyss".

A research team led by Duke University (USA) has discovered a crucial clue in limestone on the outskirts of the town of Mercato San Severino, Italy, shedding light on the mass extinction of marine life in the mid-Jurassic period.

"This event and similar events are the best examples we have of what will happen to Earth in the coming decades and centuries," SciTech Daily quoted Associate Professor Michael A. Kipp, head of the research team, as saying.

Italian limestone collected from the Mercato San Severino area in southern Italy contains molecular traces of ancient ocean chemistry - Photo: Mariano Remírez/GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

During the Jurassic period, when marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and ichthyosaurs flourished, volcanic activity in what is now South Africa released approximately 20.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide ( _CO2 ) over more than 500,000 years.

These enormous emissions have heated the oceans, causing them to lose oxygen.

By studying limestone sediments containing chemicals dating back to volcanic eruptions, researchers have indicated that at one point, oxygen was completely depleted in 8% of the ancient global seabed, an area three times the size of present-day America.

This caused marine life to suffocate and become extinct en masse 183 million years ago.

There's something terrifying: the "grim reaper" of the past is returning, brought about by humanity itself.

Since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th and 19th centuries, human activity has released _CO2 emissions equivalent to 12% of the emissions during the Jurassic volcanic period.

But Associate Professor Kipp said that the current rapid rate of _CO2 release into the atmosphere is unprecedented in history, making it very difficult to predict when another mass extinction will occur or how severe it will be.

However, human activity is more than capable of creating a catastrophic event similar to the Jurassic period. Clearly, human greenhouse gas emissions are depleting oxygen in some parts of the ocean.

This "warning from the abyss" threatens not only marine life, but also life on the planet, including humans. Because a mass extinction event causing such ecological imbalance always has global repercussions.

The new research was recently published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thu-lam-sinh-vat-ky-jura-tuyet-chung-dang-hoi-sinh-196240706083021792.htm