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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Earth exhaled, and the ‘Great Dying’ began

Gases from deep in Earth’s crust are implicated in the planet’s worst extinction event.
Lava flow

Lava ferries gases from within Earth’s rocky shell to its surface; the huge volumes of gases freed by this process some 250 million years ago seriously damaged the ozone layer. Credit: Mint Images - Frans Lanting/Getty

Earth’s biggest mass extinction was triggered by the release of gases from the planet’s own crust.

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Nature 561, 8-9 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06062-4

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