19th March 2024
The Carboniferous era began around 359 million years ago and lasted some 60 million years. It was an era in which life, land and marine, was well established – verdant swamps and forests. Raised oxygen levels in the atmosphere encouraged the evolutionary expansion of land and marine fauna. It is also known as the Age of the Amphibians as these dominated the environment – later eras saw the evolutionary journey onto mammals. This abundance of plant and animal life as they decayed became coal beds, often forming in shallow seas and swampy areas of the landscape. It was also a time of increased tectonic movement as land masses moved and mountains were formed. Towards the end of the era, increased glacial activity and climate change brought about the collapse of the Carboniferous rain forests.
The name Carboniferous comes from the Latin ‘carbo’ for coal and ‘fera’ for carrying or bearing. Ie it was the coal bearing era. An era 60 million years in the making, locking away tonnes of carbon dioxide as coal, it is mind blowing to think that at current consumption levels – 7.25 billion tonnes a year – we have just 133 years of coal left. (https://www.worldometers.info/coal/).
The Green Tau 