Representational
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience has found that the destruction of the ozone layer may have contributed to the largest mass extinction in the history of Earth.
Known as the End-Permian Extinction, when it happened, nearly 90% of everything got destroyed. Event occurred around 250 million years ago.
The event, also known as the Great Dying, occurred when a massive volcanic eruption took place.
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Eruption took place in a region which comes under present day Siberia.
Geologists call this eruption the Siberian Flood Basalts. They found that before it happened, the Siberian lithosphere was heavily loaded with chlorine, bromine and iodine.
All chemical elements are from the halogen group.
“The scale of this extinction was so incredible that scientists have often wondered what made the Siberian Flood Basalts so much more deadly than other similar eruptions,” said Michael Broadley from the Centre for Petrographic and Geochemical Research in France.
“The large reservoir of halogens that was stored in the Siberian lithosphere was sent into the Earth’s atmosphere during the volcanic explosion, effectively destroying the ozone layer at the time and contributing to the mass extinction,” Broadley added.
However, after the volcanic eruption, these elements seem to have disappeared, researchers said.
(With PTI inputs)
