“Volcanic winter” likely contributed to ecological catastrophe 250 million years ago | HeritageDaily

A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago.

Its analysis of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano eruptions produced a “volcanic winter” that drastically lowered earth’s temperatures–a change that added to the environmental effects resulting from other phenomena at the time.

The research, which appears in the journal Science Advances, examined the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME), which was the most severe extinction event in the past 500 million years, wiping out 80 to 90 percent of…