Earth's Most Devastating Mass Extinctions Triggered By Slowing Of Continental Plates: Study

Many of Earth's extinction events were triggered by major volcanic eruptions.

In a new discovery, scientists have shed light on major volcanic eruptions that occurred millions of years ago and the cause behind them. The new research published in the journal Science Advances says that a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth's surface and deliver the devastating knock-on impacts. 

The research suggests a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth's surface and deliver the devastating knock-on impacts, reported ANI. 

Earth's history has been marked by major volcanic events, called Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) -- the largest of which have caused major increases in atmospheric carbon emissions that warmed Earth's climate, drove unprecedented changes to ecosystems and resulted in mass extinctions on land and in the oceans.

Using chemical data from ancient mudstone deposits obtained from a 1.5 km-deep borehole in Wales, an international team led by scientists from Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences was able to link two key events from around 183 million years ago (the Toarcian period).