This massive eruptive event spanned the Permian-Triassic boundary, about 250 million years ago, and is widely cited as a cause of the Permian-Triassic extinction event. This extinction event, also called the Great Dying, affected all life on Earth, and is estimated to have killed 90% of species living at the time. Life on land took 30 million years to recover from the environmental disruptions caused by the eruption of the Siberian Traps.