How a volcanic bombardment in ancient Australia led to the world's greatest climate catastrophe

By Timothy Chapman, Postdoctoral Fellow in Geology, University of New England
Ian Metcalfe, Adjunct Professor, University of New England
Luke Milan, University of New England

Some 252 million years ago the world was going through a tumultuous period of rapid global warming.

To understand what caused it, scientists have looked to one particular event in which a volcanic eruption in what is now Siberia spewed huge volumes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

However, there is evidence the climate was already changing before this.

Sea surface temperatures had increased by more than 6–8℃ in the hundreds of thousands of years leading up to the Siberian outpouring. Temperatures increased again after it, so much so that 85–95% of all…

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