Can I use an active flood basalt province as a "biome" without messing my world up?
I want to use the an active large ignious province (LIP) as a "biome" on a continent in my world. This video about the Siberian Traps inspired me. A LIP modeled after the Siberian Traps gives you a vulcanic hellscapes and justification for end of the world prophecies in one. A great deal in my opinion. What I learned about the impact of the Siberian Traps so far is this.
First Phase
land has regular earthquakes and has been risen up by several hundred meters
350.000 years flooding and eruptions
gases are released; SO2 forms sun-blocking aerosols causing a vulcanic winter, Cl and F damage ozone layer, the resulting increase in UV radiation causes mutations and damage to DNA, HCl and HF cause acid rain, which causes burns and is poisonous)
half the area of the USA under ca 2 km of flood basalt shield
rest of the world relatively unaffected
Second Phase
pressure of the flood basalt inhibits further erruptions
lava goes sideways and burns coal and oil deposits
carbon is released suddenly as the silts reach the edge of the LIP
temperature rises globally by 5 K
melting of methanehydrates in the oceans increase temperature by another 5 to 10 K
all this stress and possibly an asteroid impact causes The Great Dying
The vulcanism is just what I want, but the gases could be problematic. Acid Rain isn't too bad and could be held moderate. The damage to the ozone layer isn't that bad, as the world orbits a K-Type star. The vulcanic winter has been going on for Millenia as the errption in my world is close to the end of phase one. This the vulcanic winter has become the new normal. Am I right?
The world is currently near the end of phase one. A few thousand years to go until the carbon dioxide is released. Phase two has been forseen by elven sages and is called "The Withering". According to them it will be the begin of another rebirth of the world.
My question is if it is plausible that, apart from some minor symptoms, the world remains a classical medieval fantasy setting?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/166469. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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