The 2 million year long volcanic eruption. The Siberian Traps.

Flood basalt eruptions are exactly how they sound. The result of either one giant volcanic eruption or a series of volcanic eruptions which release molten basalt that, in its lava state, is fluid enough to travel vast distances and alter the landscape massively. From filling entire valleys up and leveling them out, to rerouting where entire river systems flow. The state where I live in Australia had one of the largest flood basalt eruptions on the planet, so I grew up seeing firsthand what a flood basalt eruption leaves behind, as well as how the landscape adapts to the huge volume of material that suffocates the land beneath increasing amounts of molten basalt. In this video we'll be taking a look at the Siberian Traps, a massive long-lasting volcanic eruption that's been considered the catalyst for the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event, also referred to as the Great Dying, which occurred 250 million years ago. If you want to more videos like this one, consider hitting the subscribe button and clicking the bell icon to be notified each time I upload a new video, and consider clicking that like button as it really helps the channel out. The Siberian Traps is a large region of volcanic rock in Siberia, Russia, that is known as a large igneous province. The type of eruption that released this material is referred to as a flood basalt event. This event in particular released some 7 million kilometers squared worth of basaltic rock, with a volume of around 4 million cubic kilometers. The term trap is a geological term for rock formations and refers to the steppe-like hills forming the landscape of the region. This has since been applied to other flood basalt eruptions, such as the Deccan Traps in India. These types of volcanic eruptions are completely different from any volcanic eruption I've covered thus far on this channel. Unlike a super volcano or plinian level volcanic eruption, where the eruption occurs explosively within a split second and releases huge pyroclastic blows and decimates the land in a cataclysmic fashion, these eruptions are more like silent killers. The type of magma they release is similar to Hawaiian volcanic eruptions in that it's able to flow in a fluid water-like motion, since basalt in its magmatic form has a low silica content which creates a very low viscosity level. A high viscosity silica-rich magma is required for the particularly explosive eruptions we have covered thus far on this channel. Explosive volcanic eruptions contain magma that is so viscous and silica-rich it can barely move at all, and it is more like honey compared to water in its viscosity and texture, with it being thick, gluggy, and practically immobile on its own. Flood basaltic eruptions, on the other hand, release massive volumes of flowing magma in quantities large enough to flowing lava rivers and lava lakes, and the molten basalt very quickly covers a huge area of land as it flows increasingly outward before solidifying into basaltic rock, only to be covered layer after layer with more and more molten basalt. These eruptions occur over a huge length of time, sometimes on and off and sometimes non-stop, releasing unbelievable amounts of creeping lava which snuffs out all plant life it encounters but can be outrun by most animals. Of course, there would have been some occasions where magma made contact with water and produced more explosive eruptions, or where the same weakness in the earth that the basalt used to surface got exploited by a stronger, more silica-rich magma, which produced the many falsic rocks that lie solidified among the mafic ones, which is why this formation is officially called a flood basalt province, due to the fact multiple other more explosive eruptions did occur and coincide with the 1 million long years that the flood basalt eruption occurred. So this complex released non-stop basaltic lava upon the surface for close to 1 million years straight. I can imagine this long eruption time spurred a great many animal migrations, as more and more land was consumed by the ever-increasing molten lava, creeping closer and closer with each passing day. Which brings us to our next question, what causes these eruptions? Well, this is where things get a bit complicated. There could be a sequence of events that create eruptions like this, or it could be due to a mantle plume emanating from our planet's mantle. A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection of abnormally hot rock within the earth's mantle. Because the plume head partly melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic hotspots such as Hawaii or Iceland, and large igneous provinces such as the Deccan and Siberian Traps. Note the word proposed however, as this is still a theory, even though it's a practical one that does make a lot of sense. Mantle plumes are thought to be associated with the Yellowstone Supervolcano and are what we think created the volcanic landscape where I live, which is within the rather tectonically stable land of Australia. Now let's get into the theory that many scientists are seriously considering to be what generates events like this. This hypothesis suggests a large asteroid impact might have triggered the Siberian Traps eruption at either an impact site or the antipode of an impact site. As I read through more and more scientific literature, I keep coming across the possibility of antipodal impact sites playing a huge role in the creation of flood basaltic eruptions. I've seen links being made to the stirring of supervolcanoes and large Plinian level volcanoes due to antipodal impacts too. An antipodal impact is when a large asteroid strikes the earth at such a force that the opposite side of the planet from where it's struck is affected in various ways, such as the creation of flood basalt eruptions or volcanic eruptions in general being triggered by it. The Ontong-Jam Plateau is thought to be an example of what occurs following an antipodal impact and the Siberian Traps were antipodal from the Wilkes Land crater in Antarctica, which is estimated to have occurred around the same time as the eruption. The antipodal theory is something I've wanted to create a video on for some time as I truly believe it is a topic that is worth the time and effort required to study it in depth. So, is there a possibility the Siberian Traps could reawaken? Well, doubtful but not impossible. Researchers have suggested that as the earth's lithospheric plates moved over the mantle plume, the same mantle plume that produced the Siberian Traps in the Permian and Triassic period later went on to produce volcanic activity on the floor of the Arctic Ocean in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, and then as Iceland moved over the plume began to generate the volcanic activity that we see in present-day Iceland. But regardless, the fact of the matter is volcanic eruptions at this scale don't occur and not leave behind faults, weaknesses in the earth, and pathways for new potential volcanic magma to follow. In Australia, the flood basalt eruptions that occurred took advantage of the many pre-existing weaknesses created from an ancient subduction zone and the faults this event created, and this new magma reawakened these old faults to use as a conduit to reach the surface and cover it with ridiculous amounts of basalt. This brings us to one of the larger curiosities, which is what this eruption's impact had on prehistoric life, and whether or not it's the reason the Great Dying Extinction event occurred to begin with. Well, it's strongly linked to it, that's for sure. The timing of both coincide, but let's not forget that this was an unbelievably tumultuous time to be a living organism on earth. One surety is that the long timeline this eruption occurred over and the amount of atmospheric contamination that occurred definitely had an impact on the planet and especially the local area around the traps, with incredible amounts of differing toxic and fatal gases escaping the watery basaltic lava at a very high concentration, seemingly without end. A recent hypothesis that's quite interesting is the fact that this eruption triggered the growth of a microbe named Methanosarsenia, which produced enormous amounts of methane and spewed it into the earth's atmosphere, and is now thought to have altered the earth's carbon cycle and produced a significant increase of inorganic carbon reservoirs in a marine environment. Regardless of what caused it, the fact is that around the time the Siberian traps were erupting ceaselessly, 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species became extinct with some of the disastrous events that impacted earth continuing to repeat themselves for five to six million years after the initial extinction occurred, until the earth finally reached a state that more closely resembles equilibrium. Calculations have indicated that at the peak of the extinction, the earth underwent a lethally hot period of global warming that saw the ocean's temperatures around the world exceed 40 degrees celsius. The greenhouse gases that were pumped out by the Siberian traps were non-stop and at an incredibly high concentration. The link these two share is far too strong to be ignored, and it is possible that through this mechanism it was able to kill off animals and plants as far as the opposite side of the globe by suffocating life in a blanket of volcanic gases. After this extinction event, it ended up taking life roughly eight to nine million years to re-establish any diverse ecosystems. I honestly don't feel these types of eruptions would pose much of a threat to our species on a large scale, minus the area of land it occurred at being lost. I feel our species are capable enough of creating some way of dampening the effects of the gases it would release, and that the long period of time these occur over would offer ample opportunity to figure out how we can learn to live with these eruptions and possibly even exploit or utilize them for our own benefit. I will always feel the threat of a super volcano to be far realer, but flood basalt eruptions are catastrophic to the local flora and fauna and do render the land uninhabitable, and if left unchecked without human intervention via technology, may have the opportunity to create one of the worst extinction events our planet has ever seen. But to turn a grim extinction related story into a positive, in present-day Siberia there is a massive nickel, copper and palladium deposit that was formed within the magma conduits in the most complete part of the Siberian Traps, which mining companies are exploiting. Palladium is a very rare and incredibly important precious metal, and ore deposits are very hard to come by. To summarize, if Iceland is currently where the hotspot lies, then the chance that the Siberian Traps will erupt again would be very low, unless the catalyst for these eruptions truly is the antipodal theory I mentioned following an impact event, in which case we'd need a meteorite to hit the earth to produce another flood basalt eruption like this one. So whilst the Siberian Traps is an extinct volcanic complex today, that doesn't mean the weaknesses within the bedrock that magma once used to surface can't be exploited again by future volcanic eruptions and tectonic activity. Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, leave a like, it really helps the channel out, and if you'd like to see more content just like this, hit that subscribe button and click the bell to be notified of every new upload. Thanks again for watching, I'll see you all real soon.