Study Shows How Volcanism Might Have Affected Earth's Worst Mass Extinctions

More than 90 percent of Earth's marine species and 75 percent of terrestrial species became extinct during the most catastrophic mass extinction event in the previous 540 million years. Although scientists previously hypothesized that the end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred 251 million years ago, was caused by massive volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia, they could not explain how the eruptions caused the extinction of so many different species, both in the oceans and on land.

Volcanism occurs when a planet's interior heat is lost. When rock near the surface becomes hot enough to melt, a volcano can develop. This frequently occurs on Earth in conjunction with plate boundaries (check out the section on tectonism). Material from Earth's core progressively rises up, melts when it reaches lower pressures, and fills in space where two plates move apart, such as at mid-ocean volcanic ridges. Magma chambers can occur when one plate is subducted beneath another. The volcanic islands that indicate subduction zones are fed by these magma masses.

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