A newly uncovered geological phenomenon sheds fresh light on one of Earth’s most catastrophic mass extinction events, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of the mechanisms behind the end-Guadalupian extinction approximately 260 million years ago. A groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications by Liu, Xiong, Wu, and colleagues proposes that massive methane emissions, triggered by deep mantle plumes disturbing ancient carbon reservoirs, may have played a pivotal role in driving this dramatic episode of global biodiversity loss. This insight not only forces a reevaluation of the Guadalupian extinction but also has profound implications for understanding the interaction between deep Earth processes and surface environmental crises.
The end-Guadalupian mass extinction represents a significant turning point in the Permian period, a time characterized by profound ecological upheavals and habitat destabilizations on land and in the oceans. Traditionally, hypotheses explaining this event have centered on widespread volcanic activity—particularly the eruption of the Emeishan Large Igneous Province—and associated environmental stressors such as rapid climate warming, ocean anoxia, and acidification. However, the precise causal pathways connecting volcanic eruptions to such severe biotic collapse have remained elusive. The research led by Liu et al. addresses this gap by focusing on the role of deep methane emissions triggered by mantle plumes intersecting with ancient, thermogenic carbon sources.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas with more than 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a century timescale, has long been implicated in past climate perturbations. However, direct geological evidence tying methane release to ancient mass extinctions has been scarce. Utilizing an array of geochemical proxies alongside advanced seismic imaging and thermodynamic modeling, the team reconstructed how ascending mantle plumes around 260 million years ago intruded into organic-rich sedimentary basins and ancient methane hydrate reservoirs deep within the Earth. This process, the researchers argue, would have led to catastrophic release events of methane into the ocean-atmosphere system, acting as a catalyst for rapid and extreme climate shifts.
Core to their analysis is the recognition that mantle plumes, which are columns of anomalously hot rock rising from near the core-mantle boundary, can act as agents of profound geological transformation far beyond simple volcanic eruptions. When such thermal anomalies intersect with sedimentary basins rich in carbon compounds, the heat and associated fluid flow can destabilize both free gas pockets and methane clathrates locked in the subsurface. These destabilization events likely unleashed vast quantities of methane abruptly rather than gradually, intensifying the greenhouse effect on timescales much shorter than previously appreciated in conventional models.
Detailed geochemical evidence was extracted from global stratigraphic sections capturing the end-Guadalupian interval. In particular, isotopic signatures of carbon and sulfur show abrupt excursions consistent with large methane inputs and widespread ocean deoxygenation. These signatures align temporally with lava flows from contemporaneous Large Igneous Provinces, supporting the hypothesis that mantle plume activity was the initial trigger for a cascade of environmental collapses. Moreover, sedimentary records indicate rapid shifts in ocean chemistry and temperature, conditions hostile to the survival of many marine taxa that suffered catastrophic die-offs.
The study also sheds light on the feedback mechanisms amplifying the extinction event. Methane released into the atmosphere would have exacerbated global warming, further destabilizing clathrate deposits in shallow marine sediments and permafrost, releasing even more methane in a positive feedback loop. This runaway greenhouse effect could explain the rapidity and severity of the extinction pulses witnessed in the fossil record. Additionally, methane oxidation in ocean waters consumes oxygen, promoting anoxic conditions detrimental to marine life—a factor corroborated by the sedimentary evidence highlighted in this research.
This work also provides an opportunity to compare the end-Guadalupian extinction’s mechanisms with other mass extinction events, such as the end-Permian “Great Dying” and the end-Triassic extinction, which are similarly associated with heightened volcanic activity and climate perturbations. The identification of mantle plume-induced methane release as a causal factor emphasizes the complex interplay between deep Earth geodynamics and near-surface environmental conditions, suggesting that similar processes may operate during multiple planetary crises.
Importantly, these findings carry modern-day significance. As contemporary climate change prompts concerns about the stability of present-day methane reservoirs—such as permafrost and subsea methane clathrates—the ancient analogue drawn from the Guadalupian extinction offers a stark warning. Sudden, massive methane release remains a plausible proxy situation for abrupt climatic transitions with potentially catastrophic ecological consequences. The study encourages further multidisciplinary investigations combining geology, geochemistry, climate modeling, and paleontology to deepen our predictive understanding of Earth system behavior under extreme perturbations.
Analytically, Liu et al. employed sophisticated thermomechanical models to simulate the interaction between mantle plume heat flow and sedimentary carbon reservoirs. These simulations reveal that even relatively localized plume activity can induce widespread heating sufficient to destabilize organic carbon stored at depths of several kilometers. The models suggest that thermal diffusion and fluid migration pathways permitted methane migration both laterally and vertically, facilitating rapid methane flux to shallower crustal levels and eventually to the surface environment. Thus, the research links physical mantle dynamics to surface biogeochemical cycles with unprecedented clarity.
The authors’ multidisciplinary approach combined fieldwork with laboratory analyses, including isotopic measurements of organic and inorganic carbon across multiple lithologies. Their data reveals shifts in δ^13C values indicative of a significant methane pulse into the ocean-atmosphere system precisely coinciding with the extinction horizon. This geochemical fingerprint provides a robust means of associating volatile carbon mobilization with biological turnover, an advance that overcomes previous challenges stemming from sparse or ambiguous stratigraphic resolution.
Beyond methane’s climatic influence, the release of volatiles such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) related to plume-sediment interactions likely contributed to poisoning marine ecosystems. Hydrogen sulfide is toxic to aerobic organisms and, combined with warming and ocean acidification, would have compounded ecological stress. The paper argues that this cocktail of stressors—rapid warming, anoxia, acidification, and toxic gas exposure—acted synergistically during a geologically brief period to decimate diverse marine and terrestrial life.
From a paleogeographic perspective, the study highlights the role of the South China block and adjacent regions as important loci for mantle plume activity and methane release during the late Permian. This regional focus aligns with the location of extensive coal-bearing and organic-rich basins, reinforcing the notion that geological configuration critically influences extinction severity. Mapping such relationships globally may inform the identification of other extinction hotspots triggered by similar deep Earth processes.
Ultimately, Liu and colleagues’ research reframes the end-Guadalupian extinction as a complex event driven not solely by volcanic outgassing but by a multifaceted response of Earth’s deep carbon cycle modulated by mantle dynamics. Such novel insights enrich our conceptual framework for understanding the tangled feedbacks governing mass extinctions and emphasize the profound interconnectivity of planetary systems spanning from the deep interior to the surface biosphere.
As the quest to decode Earth’s past mass extinction mechanisms accelerates into the future, studies like this exemplify how integration across disciplines—geochemistry, geophysics, paleontology, and climate science—can yield transformative understanding. The revelation that mantle plume-induced methane emissions played a key role in the end-Guadalupian extinction not only answers longstanding questions but also poses new ones about Earth’s deep-time climate regulation and its consequences for life.
Subject of Research:
Deep Earth processes and their role in methane emissions driving the end-Guadalupian mass extinction event.
Article Title:
Plume-induced emissions of deep methane linked to the end-Guadalupian mass extinction.
Article References:
Liu, SA., Xiong, Z., Wu, T. et al. Plume-induced emissions of deep methane linked to the end-Guadalupian mass extinction.
Nat Commun 16, 5865 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61147-9
Image Credits: AI Generated
