More than 200 million years ago, waves of volcanic activity wiped out many species. New research is now highlighting how these events helped to shape modern-day UAE.
More than 200 million years ago, waves of volcanic activity wiped out many species. New research is now highlighting how these events helped to shape modern-day UAE.
More than 200 million years ago, waves of volcanic activity wiped out many species. New research is now highlighting how these events helped to shape modern-day UAE.
More than 200 million years ago, waves of volcanic activity wiped out many species. New research is now highlighting how these events helped to shape modern-day UAE.

RAK rocks discovery provides clues to mass extinction event 200 million years ago


Daniel Bardsley
  • English
  • Arabic

More than 200 million years ago, the area we know as the UAE was submerged by the Tethys Ocean and undergoing significant upheaval.

This was a period of mass extinction, one of five to have taken place in the 4 billion years of life on Earth.

Waves of volcanic activity spewed waves of carbon dioxide, wiped out many species and triggered the dominance of the dinosaurs – but also had devastating effects on marine life.

We see ocean acidification today and coral bleaching … there are important parallels to be learnt from this mass extinction
Johannes Greiff

New light has been shed on these events in what is now modern-day UAE in a study by a postgraduate researcher in Sweden.

Johannes Greiff carried out detailed analysis of rocks collected at the Ghalilah formation, a geologically important area of Ras Al Khaimah.

“The marine fauna is particularly affected due to the very nature of the extinction, which was due to volcanic eruptions. There was a severe influx of carbon dioxide. There was ocean acidification,” he said.

Rocks of the Ghalilah formation, a geologically important area of Ras Al Khaimah. Courtesy Johannes Greiff
Rocks of the Ghalilah formation, a geologically important area of Ras Al Khaimah. Courtesy Johannes Greiff

The rocks he analysed were collected on a field trip last year by researchers from Lund University in Sweden, which published Mr Greiff's master's thesis.

Detailed chemical analysis of the samples confirmed that the waters above the UAE became much more acidic, a result that ties in with previous studies.

Fossilised remains of actual corals were found in the rocks dating to before the extinction. But the picture was a lot different after the destructive changes to the seawater. Then only tiny grains called ooids were found. These are grains formed from chemicals (calcium carbonate) that were left behind when corals have decayed.

“There’s the transition from this thriving marine ecosystem to this fossil-poor, ooid-rich environment we see after the extinction,” Mr Greiff said.

Among the sea animals known to have perished were the conodonts, early, eel-like vertebrates with big eyes and large jawbones.

Mr Greiff’s analysis also showed that the oceans became starved of oxygen, but the weathering of continental areas released nutrients into their waters that stimulated a renewal of life after the extinction.

By driving three-quarters of land and sea species to extinction, the end-Triassic age opened up ecological niches and allowed the dinosaurs, for example, to rise to prominence on land during the Jurassic era.

Ooids (microscopic grains of calcium carbonate) from rocks in Ras Al Khaimah.
Ooids (microscopic grains of calcium carbonate) from rocks in Ras Al Khaimah.

Rocks in the UAE from around the time of the end-Triassic extinction are unusually helpful to researchers because in many other locations there is a long gap in the geological record due to tectonic activity such as volcanism.

“This particular part of the Tethys Ocean which the UAE was submerged under was very stable … [this] really simplifies the study of these rocks, which were deposited because they were not altered from their original state,” Mr Greiff said.

“The time after the extinction is exceptionally well-documented [in the UAE], which allows us to study the extinction by proxy.”

Areas underwater at the time of the end-Triassic extinction have been exposed because of sea-level changes and mountain formation, which happened by plates of the Earth's surface moving against each other, although the exact details are subject to debate.

The end-Triassic extinction, meanwhile, has echoes of present-day events. Some researchers and conservationists say the planet is experiencing a sixth mass extinction with habitat loss, climate change and other environmental stresses.

An estimate published last year suggested volcanic activity over 800,000 years during the end-Triassic extinction released about 24,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, where a gigatonne is 1 billion tonnes.

By comparison, carbon dioxide emissions today are about 33 gigatonnes a year – or about 1,000 times the average rate of release by the volcanic activity that caused the end-Triassic extinction.

“That’s of course worrying as we see in the geological record that it’s caused an extinction before and there’s perfect evidence of this in the UAE,” Mr Greiff said.

“We see ocean acidification today and coral bleaching … there are important parallels to be learnt from this mass extinction.”

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Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments

The Bio

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
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Ajax 2-3 Tottenham

Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate

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Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding

Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.

Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.

Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.

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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

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Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

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“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

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What is graphene?

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.

It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.

Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.

By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.

It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.

But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.

In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. 

 

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SPECS
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Race card

6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 Group 1 (PA) US$100,000 (Dirt) 2,000m

7.05pm: Meydan Classic Listed (TB) $175,000 (Turf) 1,600m

7.40pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 2,000m

8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (D) 1,600m

8.50pm: Nad Al Sheba Trophy Group 2 (TB) $300,000 (T) 2,810m

9.25pm: Curlin Stakes Listed (TB) $175,000 (D) 2,000m

10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 2,000m

10.35pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,400m

The National selections

6.30pm: Shahm, 7.05pm: Well Of Wisdom, 7.40pm: Lucius Tiberius, 8.15pm: Captain Von Trapp, 8.50pm: Secret Advisor, 9.25pm: George Villiers, 10pm: American Graffiti, 10.35pm: On The Warpath

Updated: July 18, 2021, 8:34 AM`