Comments on: Did Methane Cause the Mass Extinction That Made Way for the Dinosaurs?

By: Iain

Iain — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:25:43 +0000

@ Dave
You are thinking of the wrong mass extinction event. This article was about the one that allowed dino’s to prosper, not their demise. The methane is supposed to have caused massive warming (hint hint).
As to the dino’s extinction, the meteor crater in AZ isn’t the culprits lair, the Gulf of Mexico is.

By: Cory Morningstar

Cory Morningstar — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:01:53 +0000

http://www.climatesoscanada.org/blog/2011/02/17/the-real-weapons-of-mass-destruction-methane-propaganda-the-architects-of-genocide-part-i/

By: Brad Arnold

Brad Arnold — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:08:41 +0000

First, we will be cutting our greenhouse emissions dramatically in the near future because a revolutionary clean energy technology is emerging the last quarter of 2011. LENR using nickel – 90% cheaper than any other energy. Using LENR a gram of nickel yields an incredible 1.7 billion calories (100 times less than uranium 235, but 10,000 more than coal or oil). Here is a link to a clearing house of articles on the technology: http://peswiki.com/index.php/News:Rossi_Cold_Fusion

Second, regardless we will have to use geoengineering to cool the Earth in the short term. “The alternative (to geoengineering) is the acceptance of a massive natural cull of humanity and a return to an Earth that freely regulates itself but in the hot state.” –Dr James Lovelock, August 2008

Third, there is already a gigantic amount of methane ready to melt now. For instance, there is an area six times the size of Germany containing about 540 billion tons of carbon off the Siberian coast. That submarine permafrost is perilously close to thawing. Three to 12 kilometers from the coast the sea sediment is just below freezing. The permafrost has grown porous, there is a loss of rigor in the frozen sea floor, and the surrounding seawater is highly oversaturated with solute methane.

Finally, I really don’t think many people understand what is already predicted by climate models that omit any natural greenhouse gas emissions from a warming Earth. “Few seem to realise that the present IPCC models predict almost unanimously that by 2040 the average summer in Europe will be as hot as the summer of 2003 when over 30,000 died from heat. By then we may cool ourselves with air conditioning and learn to live in a climate no worse than that of Baghdad now. But without extensive irrigation the plants will die and both farming and natural ecosystems will be replaced by scrub and desert. What will there be to eat? The same dire changes will affect the rest of the world and I can envisage Americans migrating into Canada and the Chinese into Siberia but there may be little food for any of them.” –Dr James Lovelock’s lecture to the Royal Society, 29 Oct. ’07

By: Barry Johnstone.

Barry Johnstone. — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:45:53 +0000

A super-fart killed EVERYTHING! Everybody knows that. It also ties in with what is known only to creationists – who know ALL! (They just got a decimal-point slightly mis-placed)

By: JMW

JMW — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:20:16 +0000

Hm. I believe “Under a Green Sky” by Peter Ward outlined this possibility and a possible mechanism by which the methane would be released and cause a mass extinction.

By: Addison DeWitt

Addison DeWitt — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:06:12 +0000

I thought the end-Triassic “extinction” was a myth. I thought they did a more careful review of species and found that it was only in North America. We need more rocks from across the globe to assess an accurate geologic picture of the past. Until them, I’m not buying it.

By: Me3PO

Me3PO — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:21:50 +0000

I don’t think ganesh got the wrong era, it was just a response to the statement made by Dave L who is most likely talking about dinosaurs.

By: IW

IW — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:06:03 +0000

Regardless of how they arose, it’s obvious why dinosaurs went extinct: some irate homemaker slapped them silly for tracking muddy footprints all over the floor….

By: Solitha

Solitha — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 06:03:08 +0000

Dave L and ganesh… You missed the era being discussed, I think. This isn’t about the end of the dinosaurs, but the mass extinction that cleared the way for the dinosaurs to dominate.

By: amphiox

amphiox — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:48:25 +0000

Methane also reacts with oxygen, and enough methane release will lower O2 levels. And there was a drop in atmosphere O2 at the time of the end-Triassic extinction, as well as the previous end-Permian one.

By: ganesh

ganesh — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:38:36 +0000

@Dave L:
I believe the danger from increased methane isn’t the possibility of mass suffocation along the coast. The danger comes from the fact that, as you state, the gas will rise to the upper atmosphere where it serves as an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. It is the accelerated warming associated with increased atmospheric methane that leads to habitat destruction and species death.

I am also reminded about concerns of a similar nature regarding Siberian permafrost and the present warming trend.

Regarding a viral plague and endo/exothermy, it is probably false to assume that endothermy arose in response to a global immuno-catastrophe. It is now commonly thought that many dinosaur species (but not all) were warm blooded and it is speculated that some of the exothermic species were effectively endothermic due to their great size. This is not to say that a pathogen didn’t do the deed, but considering that such a virus or bacterium would have to be adapted to thousands of species across dozens of families and hundreds of genera, it is hard to believe that such a pandemic could even be possible. Wouldn’t a pathogen of such virulence succumb to its own success before it could spread in such a way?

By: Dave L

Dave L — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:44:59 +0000

Methane is lighter than air, so a giant release may kill animals near waterways, but I would expect for it to rise into the upper atmosphere before making its way to far reaches in land keeping animals farther inland safe from being gassed. Methane is so light that it can be used as a substitute for Helium in a balloon. While a giant release might make the place not smell too well, I can only envision animals along a mile or so from the ocean shore taking in a lethal inhailation, while the majority of it rises to upper atmosphere.
I am still in agreement with the meteor crater in AZ as the best likely cause that has evidence related to it scattered around the planet. And another possible cause that I have hypothetically come up with, with no supporting evidence which is a super virus that spread like a plague. And with the majority of the species reptilian even the bird like creatures, a reptilian virus would spread faster than fire, and it is possible that at this point in time just before mammals a species became warm blooded to fight off the virus with an advanced type of immune system like that of all mammals today, such as humans.

By: Babygirl

Babygirl — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:43:44 +0000

Dino farts are the answer to extinction. Sooooo simple..