G3
Lesson Summary
Vocabulary Link
- mass extinction
- catastrophic event
- There have been five major extinctions in the Earth’s past.
- These extinctions were caused by catastrophic events, short timescale events that have long-term effects on life and the environment.
- The second greatest extinction in the Earth’s history, which caused the death of the dinosaurs at the end of the Late Cretaceous, is thought to have been caused by the impact of a large asteroid off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
- The greatest extinction event in the Earth’s history, known as the Great Dying, occurred at the end of the Permian, and is thought to have been caused by extreme volcanism that resulted in huge lava flows in Russia known as the Siberian Traps.