Sequences that reveal the Permian-Triassic boundary continue to receive a great deal of attention, spurred by the seemingly cryptic nature of the conditions that caused up to 90% of all living things to die. Globally, the boundary is marked by a sudden and large fall in the proportion of ¹³C in carbonates and sedimentary organic matter.  Since the d¹³C anomaly follows the biotic decline, it is less likely to reflect any cause of the extinction, such as a massive methane release from destabilised gas hydrates and global warming, than an effect of whatever went on.  Joint research by UK, Dutch and US organic geochemists focused on the P/Tr boundary in northern Italy, where it is dominated by shallow-marine carbonates (Sephton, M.A. et al., 2005. Catastrophic soil erosion during the end-Permian biotic crisis. Geology, v. 33, p. 941-944). They analysed the organic compounds preserved in the section, and found that the extinction zone coincides with a major increase in total organic carbon, which is dominated by large amounts of compounds (polysaccharides) that typify soils and leaf litter.  They explain the anomaly as the result of a short period of rapid soil erosion from the terrestrial hinterland of the shallow Late Permian sea.  Since virtually all continental crust had stabilised in the Pangaea supercontinent, tens of millions of years beforehand, such erosion was unlikely have been a result of some sudden tectonic uplift. But it might have been triggered by sudden loss of the vegetation that retards soil erosion on the continental surface. The P/Tr extinction affected both marine and terrestrial organisms, and Sephton et al recognise that their discovery of evidence for soil stripping on a grand scale reflects that unified fate. Acid rain from the massive Siberian continental flood volcanism could well have been the trigger for ill thrift of land vegetation, or maybe removal of stratospheric ozone by release of halogen (chlorine and bromine) compounds let in destructive UV radiation.