510 Million Years Ago, Half of Marine Life Perished Due to This

"510 Million Years Ago, Half of Marine Life Perished Because of This"

"About 530 million years ago, this planet was filled with life after the Cambrian explosion, when most of the major animal groups we see today began to appear in the fossil record. Most of this abundance was concentrated in the oceans, which were rich with fantastic creatures like armored trilobites, three-foot-long shrimp, and spiny worms."

"However, fossil records indicate that just 20 million years later, something destroyed 45% of all animals in the oceans. This mass extinction event caused damage on an unprecedented scale. Over the years, the prevailing view has been that this sudden death was primarily caused by the rapid spread of low oxygen conditions, or 'anoxic' conditions."

The translation of "Berdasarkan Suatu Teori" to English is "Based on a Theory".

One theory suggests that this was triggered by the sudden explosion of Cambrian life, which coated the ocean floor with organic matter that decomposed as plants and animals died, and in turn, absorbed large amounts of oxygen from the water column.

"However, research published in October in the journal Geophysical Research Letters shows that this wave of mortality may have been amplified by something else: a surge of the noxious chemical gas called hydrogen sulfide that chokes life in the ocean."

510 Million Years Ago, Half of Marine Life Perished Due to This

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"Chao Chang, a geochemist, Northwest University in Xi'an, China."

"Source: Live Science"

"Tim Chang found clues to extinction in Cambrian geological records on the Yangtze Platform, a large plateau in southern China that was once underwater."

The team went there to search for molybdenum, a chemical element that is carried from terrestrial rocks through rivers to the sea. Molybdenum is durable, and in the sea, its concentration in sediments varies based on the surrounding water chemistry. These two factors make it a good proxy for ocean conditions from thousands of years ago, said Chang.

"Samples from the mass extinction period contain high levels of molybdenum. This indicates that there must be hydrogen sulfide in the water, as molybdenum "can combine with sulfur to form insoluble compounds" that then settle in the sediment, said Chang. This occurs at much higher rates in waters containing sulfide than in ordinary waters, "especially when hydrogen sulfide concentrations are at high levels," he said."

Dengan kata lain, konsentrasi molibdenum yang lebih tinggi dapat dikorelasikan dengan jumlah hidrogen sulfida yang lebih tinggi di laut.

"In other words, a higher concentration of molybdenum can be correlated with a higher amount of hydrogen sulfide in the sea."

"However, what triggers this toxic spread?"
"At this stage, no one can say for sure what causes the expansion of sulfide waters," said Chang.

"However, the oxygen deficit can be caused by the explosion of organic matter, which then sinks to the seabed and decomposes, providing a feast for trillions of microbes, he added."

The translation of "Picu Gelombang Racun" to English is "Trigger Poison Wave."

"When these microbes feast on decaying matter, they will also consume naturally occurring sulfate in seawater. But in the process, the rapidly increasing microbial population will convert sulfate into byproducts, hydrogen sulfide, and pump water full of this gas, triggering a toxic wave."

"Although the research sample only comes from modern China, the researchers believe that this toxic spread occurs globally, as molybdenum has a residence time of hundreds of thousands of years in the ocean. This long life cycle means that the levels of molybdenum isotopes recorded in a single marine sediment lump will reflect the average from the entire ocean. Further research will aim to establish what causes the anoxic conditions and the subsequent sulfide waves, said Chang."

"Basically, this means that before molybdenum can be removed from the sea, the seawater in the ocean has already been fully mixed multiple times,"

The translation of "kata Chang." to English is "word Chang."

This type of research helps scientists sketch the boundaries of habitability on Earth, he added.

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"510 Million Years Ago, Half of Marine Life Perished Because of This"

"510 Million Years Ago, Half of Marine Life Perished Because of This"

The translation of "Berdasarkan Suatu Teori" to English is "Based on a Theory".

\"Chao Chang, a geochemist, Northwest University in Xi'an, China."

"Tim Chang found clues to extinction in Cambrian geological records on the Yangtze Platform, a large plateau in southern China that was once underwater."

"In other words, a higher concentration of molybdenum can be correlated with a higher amount of hydrogen sulfide in the sea."

"However, what triggers this toxic spread?""At this stage, no one can say for sure what causes the expansion of sulfide waters," said Chang.

The translation of "Picu Gelombang Racun" to English is "Trigger Poison Wave."

"Basically, this means that before molybdenum can be removed from the sea, the seawater in the ocean has already been fully mixed multiple times,"

\
"Chao Chang, a geochemist, Northwest University in Xi'an, China."

"However, what triggers this toxic spread?"
"At this stage, no one can say for sure what causes the expansion of sulfide waters," said Chang.