Not long ago, the mainland's team of scientists published a study in Nature Communications, which may not attract everyone's attention in the past, but the undersea volcano eruption in tonga, a straight South Pacific island country, the scale of the eruption is the largest in this century, scientists have positioned this volcanic eruption at least VEI5 advanced, and may even reach VEI6, volcanic ash mixed with toxic gases straight into the clouds, through the troposphere of the atmosphere, even more than 20 kilometers, from the satellite cloud map it is clearly visible, It is no less than the cloud effect of tropical cyclone disturbances.
Previously, scientists generally believed that the mass extinction event at the turn of the Triassic-Jurassic was caused by a dense volcanic eruption, but the lack of key evidence, this time continental scientists found this "key", the fourth mass extinction event on Earth was caused by volcanic eruptions.
This submarine volcanic eruption in Tonga has once again stirred our heartstrings, after all, VEI level 5 and above volcanic eruptions have only occurred 11 times in the past 200 years, and the most serious has even led to the emergence of "summerless years". The tsunami caused by this submarine volcanic eruption affected the countries along the Pacific coast, and scientists believe that the changes in the Earth's climate and environment caused by the volcanic eruption are also there.
At present, there are more than 1,000 active volcanoes on the earth, generally referring to volcanoes that have had eruptions recorded in the last 10,000 years, and Mount Changbai, which is closer to us, and Mt. Fuji in Japan are considered supervolcanoes. For example, the supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the United States, if it erupts, it will be a disaster for all mankind.
A total of five large-scale extinction events are known to have occurred on Earth in the past 500 million years, the last of which was 65 million years ago, when an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers struck the earth's surface, causing the dinosaurs that ruled the earth for 160 million years to disappear and become extinct. The most serious one occurred during the second, Late Devonian mass extinction event, in which more than 90% of species went extinct.
In fact, according to the various biological mass extinction events that have occurred in the history of the earth, we have similar results, that is, the species that occupy the main ecological niche will disappear and become extinct, and the last extinction event dinosaurs withdrew from the historical stage, so if the sixth biological mass extinction on the earth comes, human beings are bound to be the first to bear the brunt, so we must be vigilant against all potential dangers, such as supervolcanoes or changes in the earth's climate and environment.
Both of these have happened recently, and The eruption of tonga's submarine volcano is huge, reaching vei 5-6 magnitude. According to the BBC, Australia's coastal towns experienced a rare high temperature of 50.7 degrees Celsius, which has equaled Australia's record highest record.
Scientists warn that a sixth mass extinction event may be taking place
A team of biologists from the United States and France published a study Jan. 10 in the journal Biological Reviews that argues that Earth is experiencing a sixth biodiversity mass extinction event and that humans are to blame.
Of course, many scientists do not support such a radical view, the current rate of extinction of life on Earth is mainly based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but the scientific team believes that the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is mainly mammals and birds, and there is less data on invertebrates.
To know that of the millions of species on Earth, invertebrates account for more than 95%, if the complete data is added, the current extinction rate of life on Earth is very large. According to the total data, in the last 1500 years, of the more than 2 million known species, at least 150,000-260,000 species have gone extinct, and the extinction rate has reached 7.5%-13%.
Even Elon Musk gave his own opinion on the findings, arguing that as the sun continues to evolve, eventually all species will go extinct. We know that Elon Musk's dream has always been to colonize Mars, in fact, if the sun is going to the end of life, it is meaningless to be on Mars or on Earth.
If the sixth mass extinction does come, then it is humanity who is to blame and bear the brunt of it
At present, the earliest known life on the earth appeared 3.7 billion years ago, and the species that evolved in a long period of time are diverse, but only human beings have developed intelligent civilizations and gone to the top of the food chain, of course, the history of human development and evolution for millions of years, as well as hundreds of years since entering the industrial society, the ecological environment and climate environment on the earth have been hit hard.
Humans are the absolute culprit! Since the fossil energy of mankind, it will continue to release greenhouse gases, resulting in the rise of the earth's average temperature, it is difficult to get effective mitigation at present, it seems that we can only watch the earth's climate environment gradually change.
Especially in the past two years, in addition to the impact of the new crown epidemic, extreme weather on the earth due to climate changes has continued to appear, such as floods, blizzards and various record high and low temperatures, everything is becoming more obvious.
Say at the end
At the beginning of 2022, we walked through the massive eruption of the volcano, and in Australia we also ushered in record-breaking high temperatures, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. At present, the extinction of living things on the earth is mainly related to human activities, we only need to actively take measures to avoid the destruction of the earth's climate and ecological environment to the greatest extent, to know that the earth does not necessarily need the existence of human beings, but at present we are absolutely inseparable from the earth, nature from a scientific point of view, and nature in harmony, so that we can go long and develop better.
Text/science black hole, image source network intrusion deletion.