Could fossil fuels trigger a mass extinction? Toxic oceans that wiped out species 200 million years ago are now reappearing

The Earth could be suffering from shifts in its biochemical balance similar to those believed to have wiped out half of all life 200 million years ago. This is according to a British study that has discovered a catastrophic condition called 'marine photic zone euxinia' took place in one of the prehistoric oceans. This happens when the sun-lit surface waters of the ocean become devoid of oxygen and are poisoned by hydrogen sulphide.

A team lead by the University of Southampton studied fossilised organic molecules taken from sedimentary rocks that originally accumulated on the bottom of the north-eastern Panthalassic Ocean, which surrounded the continent of Pangaea. The rocks are now exposed on the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.

[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]