Here's some news bits for all you volcanophiles. Enjoy the weekend!
Ubinas in Peru steaming away in June 2007. Image courtesy of Eruptions reader Mike Lyvers.
There has been a lot of press lately on the theory that a large eruption from an ancient volcanic field in China (the 260-million-year-old Emeishan volcanic province of southwest China) could be the culprit in the grand Permian extinction. I have to admit, I've only skimmed the surface of this study, but the work lead by Dr. Paul Wignall (a paleontologist, not a volcanologist - not that there is anything wrong with that) seems to center around the amount of sulfur dioxide released in this 500,000 km^3 basaltic eruption. Now some of the articles seem to be a bit confused about the science, such as attributing the sulfur dioxide to lava flows interacting with water, I think based on a comment by Dr. Wignall ...
