Credit: Victor Leshyk
Life of the Triassic met a choking end in a runaway greenhouse climate, heating the seas into warm stagnation. The greenhouse was caused by CO2 released by massive outpourings of basalt from fissure eruptions associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting boom in marine microbes consumed oxygen and released poisonous hydrogen sulfide into water and air, creating "dead zones" above and below, worldwide. Hydrogen sulfide posioning is detected by molecular fossils (biomarkers), depicted in lenses.