Metamorphic Sulfur Release as a Driver of Sustained Cooling and Mass Extinction

Scientists find gas emissions from rocks may have contributed to ancient climate swings, mass extinctions

An interdisciplinary team from Florida State University's Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science has uncovered new evidence about processes that may have contributed to ancient mass-extinction events, some of the most dramatic ecosystem reorganizations in Earth's history.

Metamorphic sulfur release as a driver of sustained cooling and mass extinction

Abstract The emplacement of large igneous provinces may drive catastrophic volatile release, both directly through volcanic degassing and indirectly through heating of carbon- and sulfur-bearing host sediments. It is broadly assumed that sulfur injection must reach the stratosphere to drive long-term cooling; thus, these indirect metamorphic sulfur emissions have been almost entirely ignored. Here, we demonstrate that plausible carbon and sulfur…

A Hidden Extinction Trigger Sat 2,800 Metres Underground and Never Broke the Surface

The trigger that ended the Triassic never erupted. It sat almost three kilometres underground, a sheet of molten rock 143 metres thick, and it cooled the entire planet by five degrees for two hundred years without ever breaking the surface. Findings published in Science Advances in July 2026 measure the sulfur that came out of […] The post A Hidden Extinction Trigger Sat 2,800 Metres Underground and Never Broke the Surface appeared first on Abov…

FSU Finds Rock Gas Emissions Linked to Ancient Climate Changes and

A groundbreaking study from Florida State University reveals that ancient climate swings and some of the most devastating mass extinctions on Earth may have been driven not only by volcanic activity but also by gas emissions from metamorphic rocks. The interdisciplinary team, combining expertise in geology and atmospheric science, has uncovered a critical mechanism through which sulfur and carbon gases released during metamorphism contributed to…

FSU Scientists Find Gas Emissions From Rocks May Have Contributed to Ancient Climate Swings, Mass Extinctions

An interdisciplinary team from Florida State University’s Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science has uncovered new evidence about processes that may have contributed to ancient mass-extinction events, some of the most dramatic ecosystem reorganizations in Earth’s history. Assistant professor of meteorology Michael Diamond, assistant professor of geology Emily Stewart, and geology doctoral student Lindsi Allman combined deep-earth geochemistry and atmospheric science to show that