Lessons from Earth’s Deep Past: Climate Change and Ocean Acidification 200 Million Years Ago

Understanding ongoing climate change is a major scientific challenge. Climate events in the deep history of Earth can inform us about the possible extremes of greenhouse conditions, rates and magnitude of long-term climate change, and their consequences to the ocean and the biosphere. The end of the Triassic period was a time of greenhouse warming, driven by volcanic emission of CO2 and other gases from eruptions in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. The end-Triassic mass extinction is the biotic response to rapid environmental changes triggered by volcanism. Ocean acidification was likely a major factor driving the selective extinction of calcifying marine organisms