Re: NANFA-- Louisiana sinking and other thoughts

Todd Crail (farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com)
Wed, 5 Mar 2003 16:22:55 -0500

Thanks Bruce.

Boy what a mess. All that liberated carbon and nobody to convert it back
into tissue.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Stallsmith" <fundulus_at_hotmail.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 1:20 PM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- Louisiana sinking and other thoughts

> Todd, your line of analysis seems to be pretty good. From what I
understand,
> the salinity of the world's oceans hasn't much changed since the beginning
> of the Paleozoic 'bout 543 million years ago even with dramatic swings in
> sea level. The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous eliminated
about
> 20% of animal families, based on the work of Raup and Jablonski, and the
> species percentage was somewhat higher at 40% (if I remember correctly,
the
> reference isn't in front of me). Interestingly, as well as wiping out the
> dinosaurs, the ensuing ecological cataclysm following the apparent
asteroid
> impact (involving the world's forests all burning very quickly and the
> atmosphere being full of dust and soot for centuries afterwards) was a
> severe enough event to lower temporarily the pH of the world's oceans to
> about 6.8, causing a mass extinction of marine plankton especially
diatoms.
> And terrestrial ecosystems were dominated by fern forests for several
> million years, as the environment recovered. But that's another story...
>
> --Bruce Stallsmith
> Huntsville, AL, US of A
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