Publication Date:
2011-04-06
Description:
Enormous amounts of 13C-depleted carbon rapidly entered the exogenic carbon cycle during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), as attested to by a prominent negative δ13C excursion and widespread seafloor carbonate dissolution. A widely cited explanation for this carbon input has been thermal dissociation of gas hydrate, followed by release of massive CH4 from the seafloor and its subsequent oxidation to CO2 in the ocean or atmosphere. Increasingly, papers have argued against this mechanism, but without fully considering existing ideas and available data. Moreover, other explanations have been presented as plausible alternatives, even though they conflict with geological observations, they raise major conceptual problems, or both. Methane release from gas hydrates remains a congruous explanation for the δ
Print ISSN:
1814-9340
Electronic ISSN:
1814-9359
Topics:
Geosciences