A major extinction in the midst of a huge expansion of life on Earth may have been driven by plate tectonics.
New research finds links between rock layers in Antarctica and Southern Australia, which at the time were part of the supercontinent Gondwana. This suggests that similar dynamics were occurring around the supercontinent roughly 513 million years ago: Mountains were uplifting, ancient reefs were dying, and eroded material from the continent was pouring into the sea. These moments in time coincide with the extinction known as the Sinsk event, said study leader Paul Myrow, a sedimentologist at Colorado College.
