= new reply since forum marked as read
The last time an Icelandic volcano made headlines around the world was when the tongue-twister Eyjafjallajökull spewed tons of ash into the air in 2010, halting thousands of flights and costing airlines and passengers more than $7 billion in lost revenue.
Despite the power and global impact of that volcano’s several-week-long eruption, it barely affected Iceland, dropping only a small amount of ash near its peak, Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysics and volcanology researcher at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences told Newsweek during an interview at his office in Reykjavik at the beginning of October.
But Eyjafjallajökull is paltry compared to the recent eruption of Bardarbunga (or Bárðarbunga in Icelandic), a volcano in a remote area of central Iceland that began venting lava and fumes in earnest on August 31, Sigmundsson said.
The eruption has produced a lava field that is growing about 0.6 square miles per day, and which now covers an area roughly the size of Manhattan. The average thickness of the lava is about 45 feet—enough to reach the windows on a four-story building
http://www.newsweek.com/iceland-experiencing-its-biggest-continuous-volcanic-eruption-centuries-277733
Bardarbunga, one night only at the Tune Hut! Free beer until 11:30!
It's about like I've quit "experimenting" with drugs.
Those guys are crazy
How does one put the earths major mass extinctions in a 7 sentence summary? Well that's what I did and I wasn't too specific. basically it was a lite point not a complete study of earth extinction events. Just mostly from memory. But since you asked I'll be a little more specific just for the hell of it (probably literally).
What I was nut shelling are called Anoxic events and events that cause hydrogen sulfide kills. The connection between sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide are way beyond this writing, but the earth produces both in cataclysmic events and changes. Anoxic events are when middle and upper layers of the ocean become deficient or totally lacking in oxygen. Their causes are complex and there is much controversy, but all known instances are associated global warming, mostly caused by sustained massive volcanism. Volcanism sources are high on the probability list for cause but there is a great deal of evidence that hydrogen sulfide emissions from the ocean through global warming was either the main cause or a side effect of many extinction events.
To correct myself, extinctions events have caused the extinction of 99.9% of all life on earth, not in each event but cumulatively.
Anoxic events either as primary or secondary extinction events as we conclude (or surmise) are the Ordovician–Silurian which are 2 separate events, late Devonian, Permian–Triassic and Triassic–Jurassic Ireviken, Mulde, Lau, Toarcian extinctions. The events considered among the the worst would include the Ordovician-Silurian 2 events that resulted in the extinction of 25 percent of marine families and 60 percent of marine genera, late Devonian extinction - 22 percent of marine families and 57 percent of marine genera, the Permian-Triassic extinction - 53 percent of marine families, 84 percent of marine genera, 90% to 96% of all species such as plants, insects and vertebrate animals, the End Triassic extinction - 22 percent of marine families, 52 percent of marine genera, and an unknown percentage of vertebrate, then the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction - 16 percent of marine families, 47 percent of marine genera, and 18 percent of land vertebrate families. That's 6 major ones.
All of these events whether considered anoxic primarily or anoxic as part of an impact or tectonic event caused the mass extinctions I was mentioning in the comment. There are 2 to 7 extinctions that were likely anoxic events without the help of other outside influences such as impact or volcanism, just global warming.
I won't wager my best dog on it but this is how I understand it, and I have no idea why I went to this much trouble to explain it here. I think the commenter I was posting to has me on ignore anyway. But it's a good exercise.
Last edited Mon Oct 20, 2014, 04:45 AM - Edit history (2)
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I learn something new every day and appreciate your efforts here, regardless of who you were addressing and whether or not they have you on ignore.
It's embarrassing to think that I was worried about methane releases causing a global anoxic event (except I called it "suffocation"
.
We're in very serious trouble and not enough people are paying attention or taking it seriously, let alone changing their "business as usual" attitudes.
As Carlin said about another situation, "... and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care" ... until way too late in this case, when no creature can any longer breathe the air and continue to live.
Quelle surprise! 
It's going to be a difficult ride for our species and ultimately we will join the dinos. It's only a matter of how soon it happens and much of that is up to us. We will create the time-line of our fate. I wouldn't underestimate methane releases though. The possibility of local mass extinctions from methane release is very high as the arctic melts and the ocean, lakes and tundra give up their stash, but in the big picture it's an addition to the mechanisms which could/will cause the demise of terrestrial life. But a hydrogen sulfide kill, that's the big one. The ocean made us, the ocean will ultimately remove us.
And it's a beautiful day to be alive.
[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Made all the more poignant by the knowledge of our rapid, nearly unstoppable march towards global extinction.
[center]"The ocean made us, the ocean will ultimately remove us."[/center]
We've poisoned it all and our fate is sealed if we don't quickly change course en masse.
Enjoy this beautiful day. 
