Among the five great extinctions, the end-Triassic crisis is most clearly tied to the volcanism known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). In the first phase of Pangaea's breakup, basalt flows blanketed huge tracts of what are now eastern North America, South America, northwest Africa, and Europe, releasing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfurous gases. The result was rapid global warming, ocean acidification, and the unraveling of ecosystem chains.

In the seas, a major branch of ammonites, most conodont species, and many shallow-reef builders were largely wiped out. On land, the last large amphibians and many primitive reptile groups disappeared. The most striking outcome was ecological: through the Triassic, dinosaurs had shared the stage with other large reptile groups; after the extinction these rivals were mostly gone, and in the Jurassic dinosaurs spread to become the dominant vertebrates of terrestrial ecosystems.

Cause and effect are not razor-sharp here: there is no single catastrophic day but a chain of crises spanning some hundreds of thousands of years in the rock record. CAMP's timing aligns closely with the extinction, and carbon-isotope records support major gas release. Subordinate questions — the role of a possible impact, the role of sea-level shifts — remain under study.