LEICESTER, England, March 9 (UPI) -- University of Leicester geologists say volcanoes, not meteorites, might be a more likely cause of mass extinctions on Earth, including that of dinosaurs. Professor Andy Saunders and Marc Reichow suggest the extinctions might have been caused by flood basalts -- giant volcanic eruptions that can coat continental-size areas with basalt lava. Such events correspond with all main mass extinctions.
The flood basalts, say Saunders and Reichow, might have released enough greenhouse gases to dramatically change the Earth's climate.
Said Saunders: "Impacts are suitably apocalyptic. They are the stuff of Hollywood. It seems that every kid's dinosaur book ends with a bang."
But he says there's little evidence of impacts at the time of other major extinctions, such as at the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago or at the end of the Triassic period 200 million years ago.
Saunders and Reichow have been awarded a British Natural Environment Research Council grant to study the flood basalts possibility.
