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Thursday, 24 September 2026
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Thursday, 24 September 2026
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Thursday, 24 September 2026
Sun FM Gossip
ANCIENT VOLCANOES ONCE BOOSTED OCEAN CARBON
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
A new study of antiquity, considered to be the closest natural analog to the era of modern human carbon emissions, has found that massive volcanoes have sent massive carbon waves into the oceans over thousands of years - but that nature does not match what humans do today.
The study estimates that humans are now introducing this element three to eight times faster, or even more. The effects of life on water and land are catastrophic. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.
Researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Laboratory at Columbia University studied ocean levels 55.6 million years ago, known as the Paleozoic-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Prior to this, the planet was already hotter than it had been, and rising CO2 levels of PETM increased the temperature by another 5 to 8 degrees Celsius (9 to 14 degrees F). The oceans absorbed large amounts of carbon, triggering chemical reactions that caused the water to become more acidic, killing or infecting many marine organisms.
Scientists have known about the PETM carbon rise for many years, but until now, it has been shrouded in mystery. In addition to volcanoes, hypotheses include the sudden dissolution of frozen methane (containing carbon) from seabed or collision with comets. Researchers are unsure how much carbon dioxide was in the air and how much the oceans took in. The new study confirms both the theory of volcanism and the amount of carbon released into the air.
The study estimates that humans are now introducing this element three to eight times faster, or even more. The effects of life on water and land are catastrophic. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.
Researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Laboratory at Columbia University studied ocean levels 55.6 million years ago, known as the Paleozoic-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Prior to this, the planet was already hotter than it had been, and rising CO2 levels of PETM increased the temperature by another 5 to 8 degrees Celsius (9 to 14 degrees F). The oceans absorbed large amounts of carbon, triggering chemical reactions that caused the water to become more acidic, killing or infecting many marine organisms.
Scientists have known about the PETM carbon rise for many years, but until now, it has been shrouded in mystery. In addition to volcanoes, hypotheses include the sudden dissolution of frozen methane (containing carbon) from seabed or collision with comets. Researchers are unsure how much carbon dioxide was in the air and how much the oceans took in. The new study confirms both the theory of volcanism and the amount of carbon released into the air.