Saturday, April 24, 2010

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Did Monster Eruptions Warm the World? in Science.
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum occured 55 million years ago. Temperatures rose over 5C and there were mass extinctions - many classes of current mammals arose afterwards. Researchers have recently found evidence of massive undersea volcanic eruptions near Iceland from that time period. The volcanic release of methane may have caused the warming.