A study of boron/calcium ratios in the shells of marine plankton suggests that the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a rapid global warming and ocean acidification event 55.6 million years ago that caused extinction in the deep sea and biological turnover, was accompanied by an increase of 14,900 petagrams of carbon in the oceans, likely due to volcanic CO2 emissions; estimates of the rate of CO2 emissions suggest that the carbon release occurred at least 10 times slower than modern CO2 emissions, according to the authors.
Article #20-03197: "The seawater carbon inventory at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum," by Laura L. Haynes and Bärbel Hönisch.
MEDIA CONTACT: Laura L. Haynes, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY; tel: 919-323-0140; e-mail: lhaynes@vassar.edu
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