Interesting facts (33/365)

When it rained for two million years

Nor are we going to complain that this spring is being especially rainy: at the end of the Triassic, between 234 and 232 million years ago, what is known as the CPE (Carnian Pluvial Event) took place over a period of about 2 million years in the that the climate changed and the Earth went from being a dry place to a humid place,

The arid climate of the Upper Triassic was interrupted by the markedly wetter conditions of the Carnian Pluvial Event (CPE). The evidences of the increase of the precipitations during the CPE are: 1) the development of typical soils of the tropical humid climate with a positive hydric balance throughout the year; 2) remains of plants that can live in conditions of saturation and flood, reflecting a vegetation more adapted to the humid climate; 3) entry of sediments in the basins due to the increase in continental erosion and water currents; 4) the widespread presence of amber [fossilized natural resin].

About 250 million years ago the continents still formed a single land mass known as Pangea. It is believed that the main motive of the CPE has to do with the existence of this supercontinent, which limited the movement of the clouds and could go beyond the coastline. There were also no large mountains that modified the orography of the terrain. This period of heavy rains killed most of the early reptiles and confused the geologists who found flood deposits all over the world millions of years later.

It is believed that the CPE led to the appearance of numerous large dinosaurs (Dinosaur diversification linked with the Carnian Pluvial Episode). Although their ancestors the reptiles sinápsidos existed before the CPE - adapted to the previous dry climate - the diversification of the dinosaurs was favored, not so much by the rain in itself or by the disappearance of other dominant species due to the CPE, but by the consequences of the rain: the proliferation of giant plants.