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Article: Could gas blast have warmed the globe?(methane released from ocean-floor sediments may have warmed the earth at the end of the Paleocene period)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A little over 55 million years ago, Earth spiked a fever. In less than 1,000 years-a geologic instant-the temperature of the planet climbed markedly, allowing land creatures to migrate across formerly frigid Arctic territory. The causes of this warming at the end of the Paleocene period have remained obscure, but three scientists think that the answer lurks beneath the soft ooze of the ocean floor.
Vast deposits of frozen natural gas-known as methane hydrates-are buried in sea-bottom sediments surrounding the continents (SN: 11/9/96, p. 298). If similar methane deposits melted during the Paleocene and altered Earth's atmosphere, they could have warmed the climate, ...