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.