Andrew Yee
September 15th 05, 05:27 PM
Media Relations Office
Communications Group
The Open University
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom
Media contact:
Louis De La Forêt, +44 (0) 1908 653256
Academic contacts:
Mr. Dave Kemp, +44 (0) 1908 655152
Dr. Angela L. Coe, +44 (0)1908 652161
Dr. Anthony S. Cohen, +44 (0) 1908 858360
EMBARGO 18:00 hours BST, 14 September 2005
PR5062
Killer 'triple burp' of methane caused massive global warming
Open University researchers have uncovered startling new evidence about an
extreme period of a sudden, fatal dose of global warming some 180 million
years ago during the time of the dinosaurs. The scientists' findings could
provide vital clues about climate change happening today and in the
future.
The OU Department of Earth Sciences team, PhD student Dave Kemp and
supervisors Drs. Angela Coe and Anthony Cohen, along with Dr. Lorenz
Schwark of the University of Cologne, discovered evidence suggesting that
vast amounts of methane gas were released to the atmosphere in three
massive 'methane burps' or pulses. The addition of methane, a greenhouse
gas, to the atmosphere had a severe impact on the environment, warming
Earth about 10 C, and resulting in the extinction of a large number of
species on land and in the oceans.
Dr Angela Coe says: "We've known about this event for a few years through
earlier work by our team and others, but there's been a great deal of
uncertainty about its precise size, duration, and underlying cause. What
our present study shows is that this methane release was not just one
event, but 3 consecutive pulses. Importantly, our data demonstrate that
each individual pulse was very rapid. Also, whilst the methane release
was very quick, we've found that the recovery took much longer, occurring
over a few hundred thousand years".
The methane came from gas hydrate, a frozen mixture of water and methane
found in huge quantities on the seabed. This hydrate suddenly melted,
allowing the methane to escape. The OU researchers based their findings on
geochemical analyses of mudrocks that are preserved along the Yorkshire
coast near Whitby, UK, and date from the Jurassic Period of geological
time.
Dave Kemp, whose PhD is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council
(NERC), says: "The methane was released because slight wobbles in the
Earth's orbit periodically bring our planet closer to the Sun, warming the
oceans sufficiently to melt the vast reserves of hydrate. We believe that
this effect was compounded by warming from greenhouse gases from
volcanoes. After the methane was released into the atmosphere from the
seabed it reacted rapidly with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Carbon
dioxide is also a powerful greenhouse gas that persists in the atmosphere
for many hundreds of years, and it was this gas which caused such a
massive global warming effect".
Dr Anthony Cohen adds: "One of the most important aspects of the study is
that it provides an accurate timescale for how the Earth, and life,
reacted to a sudden increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Today we are
releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, primarily
through the burning of fossil fuels. It is possible that the rate at which
carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere now actually outstrips the
rate at which it was added 180 million years ago. Given that the effects
were so devastating then, it is extremely important to understand the
details of past events in order to better comprehend present-day climate
change. With this information, we are better informed about what action
needs to be taken to mitigate or avoid some of the potential detrimental
future effects".
Editor's Notes
The research done by The Open University scientists is published in full
by Nature magazine on 15 September 2005.
Resources
Website:
http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/index.htm
http://www.nature.com/index.html
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/
Communications Group
The Open University
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom
Media contact:
Louis De La Forêt, +44 (0) 1908 653256
Academic contacts:
Mr. Dave Kemp, +44 (0) 1908 655152
Dr. Angela L. Coe, +44 (0)1908 652161
Dr. Anthony S. Cohen, +44 (0) 1908 858360
EMBARGO 18:00 hours BST, 14 September 2005
PR5062
Killer 'triple burp' of methane caused massive global warming
Open University researchers have uncovered startling new evidence about an
extreme period of a sudden, fatal dose of global warming some 180 million
years ago during the time of the dinosaurs. The scientists' findings could
provide vital clues about climate change happening today and in the
future.
The OU Department of Earth Sciences team, PhD student Dave Kemp and
supervisors Drs. Angela Coe and Anthony Cohen, along with Dr. Lorenz
Schwark of the University of Cologne, discovered evidence suggesting that
vast amounts of methane gas were released to the atmosphere in three
massive 'methane burps' or pulses. The addition of methane, a greenhouse
gas, to the atmosphere had a severe impact on the environment, warming
Earth about 10 C, and resulting in the extinction of a large number of
species on land and in the oceans.
Dr Angela Coe says: "We've known about this event for a few years through
earlier work by our team and others, but there's been a great deal of
uncertainty about its precise size, duration, and underlying cause. What
our present study shows is that this methane release was not just one
event, but 3 consecutive pulses. Importantly, our data demonstrate that
each individual pulse was very rapid. Also, whilst the methane release
was very quick, we've found that the recovery took much longer, occurring
over a few hundred thousand years".
The methane came from gas hydrate, a frozen mixture of water and methane
found in huge quantities on the seabed. This hydrate suddenly melted,
allowing the methane to escape. The OU researchers based their findings on
geochemical analyses of mudrocks that are preserved along the Yorkshire
coast near Whitby, UK, and date from the Jurassic Period of geological
time.
Dave Kemp, whose PhD is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council
(NERC), says: "The methane was released because slight wobbles in the
Earth's orbit periodically bring our planet closer to the Sun, warming the
oceans sufficiently to melt the vast reserves of hydrate. We believe that
this effect was compounded by warming from greenhouse gases from
volcanoes. After the methane was released into the atmosphere from the
seabed it reacted rapidly with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Carbon
dioxide is also a powerful greenhouse gas that persists in the atmosphere
for many hundreds of years, and it was this gas which caused such a
massive global warming effect".
Dr Anthony Cohen adds: "One of the most important aspects of the study is
that it provides an accurate timescale for how the Earth, and life,
reacted to a sudden increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Today we are
releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, primarily
through the burning of fossil fuels. It is possible that the rate at which
carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere now actually outstrips the
rate at which it was added 180 million years ago. Given that the effects
were so devastating then, it is extremely important to understand the
details of past events in order to better comprehend present-day climate
change. With this information, we are better informed about what action
needs to be taken to mitigate or avoid some of the potential detrimental
future effects".
Editor's Notes
The research done by The Open University scientists is published in full
by Nature magazine on 15 September 2005.
Resources
Website:
http://cepsar.open.ac.uk/index.htm
http://www.nature.com/index.html
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/