Volcanic winters linked to dinosaurs’ downfall before asteroid fate

By James Gamble via SWNS

The asteroid that hit Earth only finished off the dinosaurs who were already on the way out due to volcanic eruptions, a new study claims.

Volcanic winters brought on by huge volcanic eruptions played a significant role in the extinction of dinosaurs before the asteroid struck.

The huge space rock credited with wiping out the dinosaurs hit the earth in what is now the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago.

But the latest research shows that massive eruptions 200,000 years before that could have caused a volcanic 'winter' with plunging temperatures that would have severely weakened the dinosaurs' grip.

Scientists were able to estimate the sulfur and fluorine released into the atmosphere after the eruptions thanks to a new technique of analyzing rock samples likened to cooking pasta.

The worldwide team of researchers behind the study, from across Europe and the United States, warned world leaders to take notice of their discovery to inform humanity's approach to our own changing climate.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, sought to estimate how much sulphur and fluorine was injected into the atmosphere due to the eruptions.

The researchers - from the US, UK, Sweden, Italy, Norway and Canada - remarkably discovered that the sulphur release could have triggered a drop in temperature around the world in a phenomenon known as a 'volcanic winter'.

Don Baker, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Canada's McGill University, said this would have likely 'set the stage' for the eventual extinction event of the devastating, six-mile-wide asteroid that wiped them off the planet.

The new research suggests that the asteroid impact, which also triggered a mega-earthquake that lasted as long as months, was just one part in the story of the dinosaurs' extinction.

Searching for missing pieces to the puzzle, the study team delved into the historic volcanic eruptions of the Deccan Traps - a vast and rugged plateau in Western India formed by molten lava.

The researchers found that the Traps erupted an astonishing one million cubic kilometers of rock, which may have played a key role in cooling the global climate around 65 million years ago.

“Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs," study co-author Prof Baker explained.

"This instability would have made life difficult for all plants and animals and set the stage for the dinosaur extinction event.

"Thus our work helps to explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species."

The researchers' work took them all around the world, from hammering out rocks in the Deccan Traps to analyzing the samples in England and Sweden.

The team at McGill University even developed a new technique, likened to boiling pasta, to decode the volcanic history of the rocks.

The pioneering technique for estimating ancient sulphur and fluorine releases involved a complex combination of chemistry and experiments, Prof Baker explained.

"Imagine making pasta at home: you boil the water, add salt, and then the pasta," he said.

"Some of the salt from the water goes into the pasta, but not much of it.

"Similarly, some elements become trapped in minerals as they cool following a volcanic eruption."

Just as you could calculate salt concentrations in the water that cooked pasta by analysing salt in the pasta itself, the new technique allowed the scientists to measure sulphur and fluorine in rock samples.

With this information, the scientists then calculated the amount of these gases released during the eruptions.

The groundbreaking discoveries bring us one step closer to uncovering Earth’s ancient secrets.

The researchers also expressed hope that their findings could "pave the way for a more informed approach to our own changing climate."