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Extinction Event - ELE - Extinction Level Event

Contributed by Wikipedia Article
June 06, 2007

What is an Extinction Level Event?

An extinction event (also extinction-level event, ELE) is a period in time when a large number of species die out. The
normal background rate of extinctions is about two to five families of marine invertebrates and vertebrates every million
years. Since life began on Earth, this background extinction rate has been punctuated by seven major extinction events.
- 500 million years ago a series of mass extinctions at the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary (the Cambrian-Ordovician
extinction events) eliminated many brachiopods and conodonts and severely reduced the number of trilobite species.
- 440 million years ago at the Ordovician-Silurian transition two Ordovician-Silurian extinction events occurred, probably
as the result of a period of glaciation. Marine habitats changed drastically as sea levels decreased, causing the first die-
off, then another occurred between 500 thousand and a million years later when sea levels rose rapidly.
- 365 million years ago in the transition from the Devonian period to the Carboniferous period about 70% of all species
were eliminated. This was not a sudden event; evidence suggests that the extinctions took place over a period of some
three million years.
- 252 million years ago, in the Permian-Triassic extinction event, about 95% of all marine species went extinct. This
catastrophe was Earth's worst mass extinction, killing 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, and an estimated
70% of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrate animals.)
- 195 million years ago, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event eliminated about 20% of all marine families as well as
most non-dinosaurian archosaurs, most therapsids, and the last of the large amphibians.
- 65 million years ago, the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event killed about 50% of all species, including the dinosaurs.
- 20 thousand years ago through today, humans are causing another extinction event. Hunting and overfishing have
already caused extinctions and population collapses of many large land animals and fish species. Industrial development
is causing habit destruction and climate changes which are bringing about the extinction of many animals and plants
throughout the world.
How often do Extinction Level Events occur? It has been suggested that there is a cycle of extinctions,
with a mass extinction occurring every 26 to 30 million years. It is difficult to date fossils accurately enough to produce a
reliable result, but most studies of this hypothetical cycle suggest that another mass extinction would be due in little more
than 10 million years. There is abundant evidence that we are currently living in the middle of a man-made Holocene
extinction event.

A recent theory, which has been largely discredited, suggested that the extinction cycle is caused by the orbit of a
hypothetical companion star dubbed Nemesis that periodically disturbs the Oort cloud, sending storms of large asteroids
and comets towards the Solar System every 26 million years. Another, similar theory suggests that the Solar System's
oscillations through the plane of the galaxy results in periods of comet showers.

along continental rifts may include eruption events named verneshots which launch gigatonnes of rock into sub-orbital
trajectories. The consequent impacts are expected to have very similar effects to and An even more recent theory,
which is still being evaluated, is that periodic large scale vulcanismasteroid impacts. This theory explains the periodicity
of extinction events as well as the apparently coincidental occurrence of large-scale impactsvulcanism for at least three
of the extinction events without relying on coincidence in the way that the asteroid impact theory does.
Extinction event refers to extinction of species, not all life. Although many life forms may become extinct, the usual
connotation is that the "event" is at most a transition in dominant life forms. For example, the Cretaceous-Tertiary
extinction event promoted the domination of spores and swamp life for a period almost directly after the event. A
complete extinction of all known life forms may be possible, but no such event has ever been discovered.

The collision of a large asteroid with the earth is one of several hypothetical scenarios put forward in recent
years that scientists believe may cause or trigger an ELE (another is global nuclear warfare).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event ( Wikipedia - The best online encyclopedia known to man -

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