Greenhouse gas emissions released directly from the movement of volcanic rocks are capable of creating massive global warming effects – a discovery which could transform the way scientists predict climate change, a new study reveals.
Scientists’ calculations based on how carbon-based greenhouse gas levels link to movements of magma just below earth’s surface suggest that such geological change has caused the largest temporary global warming of the past 65 million years.
Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are extremely large accumulations of igneous rocks which occur when magma travels through the crust towards the surface.
Geologists at the University of Birmingham have created the first mechanistic model of carbon emissions changes during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) - a short interval of maximum temperature lasting around 100,000 years some 55 million years ago.
Read more at University of Birmingham
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