Re: [asa] Global Warming on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, Venus, ...?

>If the deep seawater temperature rises 3 degrees C, methane will be
released much faster than it will be precipitated by carbonate deposition.
~

>*Methane burps disproved? Gassy emissions no longer in suspect dock for
melting the last ice age.
*
Although intervals of glacial melting, including the last one, probably
would entail some release of methane from gas clathrates, they don't seem
likely to be a strong causative factor but rather a side effect producing
some positive feedback. However, this is not because release of gas from
clathrates could not have a drastic effect; rather, it is because conditions
don't seem to have favored extensive release. In the latest Paleocene,
global temperature spiked abruptly, in association with dramatic warming of
deep sea temperatures. It stayed very warm for millions of years
afterwards, warm enough for crocodiles, flying lemurs, and forests in the
Canadian Arctic. Right at the temperature spike, there was a larger
extinction of deep-sea benthic forams than at the K/T. There are isotopic
excursions at the temperature spike that support the idea that release of
methane from gas clathrates was a major factor. (Other factors triggered
the initial warming that led to clathrate dissociation; possibilities
include high levels of volcanism in the Caribbean and configuration of the
continents and sea level conducive to producing warm, salty water that was
salty enough to be the densest water around, sinking to the seafloor).

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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