Volcanoes not evil! Volcanoes good!

At Deep Sea News, Craig McLain reflects on the theory that volcanism was behind the Cretaceous anoxic marine extinction event and comes to the conclusion that ‘volcanoes are evil and an enemy of our salty friends’. This libellous claim has stirred the righteous indignation of Maria Brumm at Green Gabbro, who points out that ‘without volcanoes, there wouldn’t be any life on Earth at all’ and lays it on the line about those vital volcanic volatiles, the cleaning up of the atmosphere, the creation of islands and all those other things that lifeforms (salty or not) should be grateful to volcanoes for. ‘Volcanoes were here before we snotty, ungrateful hydrocarbons metamorphosed from the goo’, she declares superbly, ‘and volcanoes will be here after we’re gone’.

Evil indeed! Just because some of us might feel a little bit sentimental about a mass extinction or two.

UPDATE: Craig McLain has responded to Maria Brumm’s post. Includes nice ‘volcano of evil’ illustration.

FURTHER UPDATE: Three cheers for Chris Rowan at Highly Allocthonous, who intervenes on the side of the volcanoes. Quote: ‘Volcanoes may cause the odd extinction event or two, but they’re also a big part of why there are things to go extinct in the first place’.