Life › Seas, forests & the move to land › The Great Dying (end-Permian extinction)
Siberian Traps eruptions
c. 252 million years ago· Event· Earth, climate & extinctions
Strong evidenceGood evidence; dates or details still being refined.
Enormous volcanic eruptions in Siberia that poured out millions of cubic kilometers of lava around 252 million years ago.
See it on the Life map →What happened
"Traps" comes from the Swedish word for stairs, after the stepped hills of stacked lava flows. Lava and magma covered perhaps 2–7 million square km, with a total volume estimated at 1–4 million cubic km, erupted over about a million years. Crucially, magma also spread sideways in sheets through thick beds of coal, limestone and salt, baking out vast amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and ozone-damaging chlorine and bromine gases.
Why it matters
A prime example of volcanism wrecking global climate. Its carbon release is often compared with today's fossil-fuel emissions, though the pace was different.
The evidence (fossils, genes, rocks)
Uranium-lead dating of zircon crystals ties the main pulse to the extinction within tens of thousands of years; coal-ash particles and mercury spikes appear in boundary rocks far away.
Still debated
How fast the gases escaped, which gas did the most harm, and why killing began at a particular stage of the eruptions are still studied.
Connections (2)
▸Siberian Traps eruptions triggered The Great Dying (end-Permian extinction)Strong evidence
The connection
The eruptions released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, much of it by baking coal and limestone underground. Rapid warming, acidified oceans and seas losing oxygen followed, and halogen gases may have thinned the ozone layer. Together these stresses killed most species, perhaps within tens of thousands of years.
When and how
Siberia, about 252 million years ago. Precise dating by Seth Burgess, Samuel Bowring and colleagues (2014–2017) tied the deadliest eruption phase to the extinction.
How sure are we?
High-precision uranium-lead dates show eruptions began just before the extinction; carbon isotope swings and mercury spikes in boundary rocks worldwide record volcanic input.
Debates and open questions
Which gas killed most species, and why only some eruption phases were deadly, remain debated. Few scientists now doubt the link itself.
▸Siberian Traps eruptions is an ancient analogue for Human-caused climate changeStrong evidence
The connection
The Siberian eruptions released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, much of it baked out of buried coal and limestone. The world warmed, oceans acidified and lost oxygen, and the Great Dying followed. Today's emissions may be as fast or faster each year, though far smaller in total so far, making the eruptions a warning case.
When and how
Siberia, about 252 million years ago, over roughly a million years; the comparison comes from geochemists studying Permian rocks in China, Italy and elsewhere.
How sure are we?
Carbon-isotope shifts, warming recorded in oxygen isotopes of fossil conodont teeth, and acidification signals in boron isotopes all line up with precisely dated eruptions.
Debates and open questions
How fast the carbon came out in the deadliest pulses compared with today's rate, and whether modern emissions could trigger similar feedbacks.