A major oil supply in North America provides information on one of the most devastating mass extinctions on the planet. Covering 200,000 square miles in parts of Canada and North Dakota, the Bakken shale formation has been a strong source of oil and natural gas for North America for the past 70 years. Recent discoveries have shown that these rocks provide a unique insight into the complex geological history of our planet.
A research team made up of geologists from the University of Maryland, George Mason University and Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has developed a new approach to study paleontological and biogeochemical information from reservoir rocks. Using this technique, the team identified the main triggers of several closely related biotic crises during the Late Devonian period, about 350 million years ago: depletion of oxygen and expansion of hydrogen sulfide in euxinia, or large bodies of water.
“For the first time, we are able to point to a specific killing mechanism that was responsible for a number of important biotic disturbances during the Late Devonian,” said UMD Professor of Geology Alan J. Kaufman, senior author of the paper. “There have been other mass extinctions in the past, possibly caused by hydrogen sulfide expansion, but no one has studied the effects of this killing mechanism in such depth at such a critical time in Earth’s history.”
According to Kaufman, the Late Devonian period was a “perfect storm” of factors that play a big role in how Earth looks today. Vascular plants and trees were particularly important to the process; As plants spread over land, they stabilized the soil structure, helped distribute nutrients to the ocean, and removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while adding oxygen and water vapor to the atmosphere.
Source: Port Altele
