New islands: how life colonises them

Islands formed from volcanic eruptions, such as the recent one off the coast of Japan, are harsh environments. But as the 50-year-old island of Surtsey near Iceland shows, nature will take hold anywhere

The recent appearance of a new island off the coast of Japan, following an undersea volcanic eruption, was well timed. It was 50 years ago that another island was born: Surtsey. Named after a "fire giant" from Norse mythology, it appeared off the southernmost tip of Iceland on 14 November 1963, just as the Beatles were riding high in the charts and President Kennedy was planning that fateful visit to Dallas.

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Dinosaur die out might have been second of two closely timed extinctions

The most-studied mass extinction in Earth history happened 65 million years ago and is widely thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. New University of Washington research indicates that a separate extinction came shortly before that, triggered by volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet and killed life on the ocean floor.

The well-known second event is believed to have been triggered by an asteroid at least 6 miles in diameter slamming into Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. But new evidence shows that by the time of the asteroid impact, life on the seafloor -- mostly species of clams and snails -- was already perishing because of the effects of huge volcanic eruptions on the Deccan Plateau in what is now India.

"The eruptions started 300,000 to 200,000 years before the impact, and they may have lasted 100,000 years," said Thomas Tobin, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Continued:  http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/dinosaur-die-out-might-have-been-second.html#.UEx9vLKPUYk