TOP 10 VOLCANOES IN GEOLOGIC HISTORY

by Michael Reilly

1. Siberian Traps, Siberia

A LIP just like Ontong-Java, the Siberian Traps supervolcano has one distinct difference: it is by far the deadliest volcano the planet has ever seen.

The traps erupted at the end of the Permian era, 250 million years ago. It was the worst mass extinction the planet has ever seen; 90 percent of all life on Earth was wiped out.

The massive traps basalts appear to be the smoking gun. They seeped into huge coal deposits on their way to the surface, and their enormous heat baked the coal, sending billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The global warming that followed was catastrophic -- it took millions of years for life on Earth to recover.

Credit: NASA

Article posted February 27, 2009.

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