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Permian wild fires

7 July 2021
Catastrophism

At https://phys.org/news/2021-07-wildfires-permian-triassic-transition-vege… … one aspect of the proposed meteor bombardment at the Younger Dryas boundary is purported evidence of wild fires – although the actual evidence is subject to dispute. Now, the same idea has become part of the Permian-Triassic transition event [otherwise the end of Permian extinction episode]. The transition, presumably an event that is extended by the dating of sediments laid down, is said to be the most significant extinction event in earth's history. More and more records of wild fires are popping up, coinciding with a collapse of the terrestrial ecosystem and subsequent changes in vegetation cover. This new research comes from China – following investigations in Jimar in the Xinjiang Uiger Autonomous Region in NW China. Charcoals from several stratigraphic horizons [sedmimentary beds] have been studied and catalogued. These seem to show that landscape fires dominated the sequences of the Guodikeng Formation [see Wiki for example for the location and previous research conclusions]. For more on the current study see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103670 or https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.615841

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