Burning coal may have caused Earth’s worst mass extinction | Dana Nuccitelli

New geological research from Utah suggests the end-Permian extinction was mainly caused by burning coal, ignited by magma

Earth has so far gone through five mass extinction events - scientists are worried we're on course to trigger a sixth - and the deadliest one happened 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian geologic period. In this event, coined "the Great Dying," over 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species went extinct. It took about 10 million years for life on Earth to recover from this catastrophic event.

Scientists have proposed a number of possible culprits responsible for this mass extinction, including an asteroid impact, mercury poisoning, a collapse of the ozone layer, and acid rain. Heavy volcanic activity in Siberia was suspected to play a key role in the end-Permian event.