He changing of the climate There is very irregular rainfall around the world. We are coming from long periods drought To Heavy rains, causing serious flooding in many parts of the world. If we look back, many of us remember times when it rained continuously, but not too heavily, for several days. In many parts of the world this already seems almost impossible. It is therefore interesting to know that there was a time when it rained almost continuously for 2 million years. This phenomenon is known as Carnia pluvial event and may have been responsible for the great appearance of dinosaurs.
All this occurred 232 million years ago, approximately. Although, logically, he is known much less. It was discovered in parallel by two teams of researchers responsible for analyzing two rock samples: one located in the Eastern Alps and the other in the United Kingdom.
During 1970s and 1980s, these scientists described something that would later be found in other rocks in many parts of the world. The layers buried at depths coinciding with the appearance of the dinosaurs contained sandstone deposits that could only have been preserved by very long rains that continued for the next 2 million years. This is how the Carnia pluvial event was discovered. But this was only the beginning of what would follow.
Discovery of the Carnia pluvial event.
In 1973, scientists Wolfgang Schlager and Wolfgang Schölnberger published a study that described an interesting discovery in a sample of sedimentary rocks from Alps Oriental. These stones corresponded layer of siliciclastic deposits, deposited about 232 million years ago. These are layers formed by the accumulation of sediments with a sandstone base on which quartz and other silicates are deposited.
These types of deposits are often formed by the transport of sediment during rainfall. They can also give an idea of the humidity at the time they were deposited. And in this case, it seems that they were saving for 2 million yearsin which the rain must have been practically constant.
Soon after this, although already in the 80s, two other scientists, Alastair Raffel and Michael Simmsmade a similar conclusion in Great Britain. Added to this were the findings of other geologists around the world.
Since then, this period, called the Carnia Pluvial Event, has been studied by other scientists, who have hypothesized what its origins might have been and, furthermore, how it might have affected the fauna of the time. For example, many scientists agree that this may be the reason appearance of dinosaurs on the face of the earth. Of course, the dates coincide. But before we get to that, let’s look at how such rains could occur.
The volcano where it all began
Currently, the main hypothesis for the origin of the Carnia pluvial event is that it was due to a major volcanic eruption. This happened in former territory of Wrangel, which extended from south-central Alaska to the coast of British Columbia.
When a volcano erupts, it releases large amounts of water vapor. This environmental humidity contributes to the formation of clouds that lead to rain, sometimes torrential. This is acid rain, as it is accompanied by gases released by the volcano. On the other hand, this eruption was so colossal that it could also give rise to excellent atmospheric warming. And here we must talk about the consequences.
The emergence of dinosaurs after the pluvial event in Carnia.
The rains from the Carnia pluvial event came after a long period of drought. So they made it easier vegetation distribution, which led to the creation of an environment that was very favorable for the diversification and emergence of dinosaurs. Climate change could cost others their lives large predatorsso they became kings of the planet.
And so it went on until another colossal event occurred that changed everything and put an end to them. What nature gives you, nature also takes away. This is the story of the great emergence of dinosaurs.
Source: Hiper Textual
