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      Massive dissociation of gas hydrate during a Jurassic oceanic anoxic event

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          Abstract

          In the Jurassic period, the Early Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (about 183 million years ago) is associated with exceptionally high rates of organic-carbon burial, high palaeotemperatures and significant mass extinction. Heavy carbon-isotope compositions in rocks and fossils of this age have been linked to the global burial of organic carbon, which is isotopically light. In contrast, examples of light carbon-isotope values from marine organic matter of Early Toarcian age have been explained principally in terms of localized upwelling of bottom water enriched in 12C versus 13C (refs 1,2,5,6). Here, however, we report carbon-isotope analyses of fossil wood which demonstrate that isotopically light carbon dominated all the upper oceanic, biospheric and atmospheric carbon reservoirs, and that this occurred despite the enhanced burial of organic carbon. We propose that--as has been suggested for the Late Palaeocene thermal maximum, some 55 million years ago--the observed patterns were produced by voluminous and extremely rapid release of methane from gas hydrate contained in marine continental-margin sediments.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Nature
          Nature
          Springer Science and Business Media LLC
          1476-4687
          0028-0836
          Jul 27 2000
          : 406
          : 6794
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK. stephen.hesselbo@earth.ox.ac.uk
          Article
          10.1038/35019044
          10935632
          c261fdc9-3555-450d-9ac1-c635d7d41acc
          History

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