Carnian pluvial event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnian_pluvial_episode

https://youtu.be/tlUDzIhqDDw?si=7of46Uo0h-bkQWTs

lasted for perhaps 1–2 million years (around 234–232 million years ago)

How did it rain so long in the Carnian pluvial event? (ChatGPT, 2025-7-6)

Ah, the Carnian Pluvial Event (CPE) — a remarkable episode in Earth’s history, when it rained for over a million years.

This happened roughly 234–232 million years ago, during the Late Triassic period. The event was marked by intense, long-lasting rainfall, global climate shifts, ecosystem upheavals, and major evolutionary transitions — including the rise of dinosaurs and early mammals.

🌧️ Why did it rain for so long?

The cause of this prolonged wet period was likely a combination of volcanic, climatic, and ecological feedback loops. Here’s the breakdown:

1. 

Massive Volcanic Eruptions (Wrangellia LIP)

• The Wrangellia Large Igneous Province (present-day western Canada and Alaska) erupted during this period.
• It released enormous quantities of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• Result: global warming → increased evaporation from oceans → more water vapor in the atmosphere.

🌀 Water vapor is itself a potent greenhouse gas, and this feedback intensified the hydrological cycle — creating a hot, wet greenhouse world.

2. 

Destabilization of Climate Systems

• The sudden warming disrupted existing climate patterns, shifting Earth from a more arid regime to a monsoonal one.
• Regions that were previously deserts experienced persistent and heavy rains.
• This was not a local weather anomaly, but a planet-wide shift in atmospheric dynamics.

3. 

Carbon Cycle Chaos

• The volcanic CO₂ triggered ocean acidification, extinction of many marine species, and breakdown of existing ecosystems.
• Collapsing ecosystems released more carbon from soils and biomass (especially from massive peatlands), fueling further warming and instability.
• In some regions, massive floods washed terrestrial organic matter into the oceans, creating black shales (carbon-rich sediments that preserved the event).

4. 

It Wasn’t “Rain” as We Know It — It Was a Climate Mode

• Think of it not as a literal uninterrupted downpour, but a planetary climatic regime, similar to a supercharged, global-scale El Niño lasting over 1 million years.
• Regions oscillated between extreme wet and dry, but the general trend was much wetter than the preceding arid Triassic environment.

🌱 Why It Mattered

The Carnian Pluvial Event had deep evolutionary significance:

• Wiped out many dominant Triassic herbivores and opened ecological space.
• Gave rise to the first true dinosaurs, early mammals, and many modern groups of plants and invertebrates.
• It was a punctuated moment when climate catastrophe triggered evolutionary innovation — a classic case of destruction enabling emergence.

🌀 In short:

It rained for a million years not because of a freak storm, but because Earth’s climate system was thrust into a long-term hyper-greenhouse state, triggered by massive volcanic CO₂, climate destabilization, and feedback loops in the hydrological cycle.

Would you like a “deep time” poetic rendering of the Carnian Pluvial Event — as a metaphor for crisis, rebirth, or therapeutic regression?