The five mass extinctions Earth has already experienced revealed in shocking simulation

Nothing helps keep you grounded like knowing that Earth has had multiple mass extinction events.

And not just one or two over its roughly 4.6 billion years of existing, but there have been a whopping five extinctions.

The 2015 documentary Racing Extinction showcased a terrifying simulation that shows just how often the Earth has been beaten up over the years.

Which in all honestly helps put things into perspective since another extinction level event could come around at any time.

But what even is a mass extinction event?

A mass extinction event is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced and is usually defined as about 75% of the world’s species being lost in a short period of geological time, which works out to around 2.8 million years.

So which of these events have already happened?

A mass extinction event is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced (Racing Extinction)

Ordovician mass extinction event

This event occurred around 444 million years ago and is believed to have been caused by a global cooling of the planet and a reduce sea level.

This dramatically impacted the marine species living in the shallow coastal waters that were warmer.

The event is believed to have wiped out around 85 percent of the global population.

Late Devonian mass extinction event

This event occurred an estimated 360 million years ago and around 75 percent of the species on the planet was wiped out.

Another bout of global cooling is believed to have sparked this extinction event. This is believed to be a drop in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well. Some experts have suggested this occurred due to an abundance of plants and diversified plant species.

Permian mass extinction event

The Permian mass extinction was certainly a volatile one as it managed to wipe out almost 100 percent of all life on Earth, eliminating 96 percent of species on the planet.

The event occurred around 250 million years ago and was caused by intense volcanic activity.

This resulted in global warming and elevated CO2 and sulfur levels in the atmosphere.

This also caused ocean acidification, acid rain and other awful things across the globe. Certainly sounds like the worst of the 5... as far as extinction events go.

The 2015 documentary Racing Extinction showcased a terrifying simulation. (Racing Extinction)

Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction event

This extinction event occurred 200 million years ago and this one sounds equally terrifying.

Scientists believe this was caused by underwater volcanic activity in the central Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. This caused more global warming and changed the chemical composition of the ocean... again, making 80 percent of the world’s species extinct.

(KT) Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event

This is the extinction event most people are familiar with and is widely believed to be the extinction that wiped out the last of the dinosaurs.

An asteroid that smashed into the planet touched down in Yucatán, Mexico and occurred around 65 million years ago and caused rapid cooling.

Topics: Nature, Science, Climate Change, Space, Documentaries

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.