Re: [asa] CO2 content

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 3:19 PM, David Campbell <pleuronaia@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> (Note: I have not gone back to the Azolla presentation to check the claims
> about how much CO2 was sequestered, etc. I definitely wouldn't want to
> assert that abundant Azolla is enough to cause a significant decrease in
> CO2. My point is just that "warming causes lots of Azolla" is way too
> simplistic.)
>
>

Slide 171 says:

Slide 171*did Azolla really change the Earth from
a supergreenhouse to icehouse state?*

The implication is that Azolla sequestered 3000 ppm of CO2! This was based
on exactly TWO measurements with an error rate of 30-40%. Furthermore, slide
114 has this alleged CO2 drop being the same time as the so-called Azolla
event when they were 3 million years apart. In fact, this slide about the
Azolla event is utterly breathtaking in its claims and deserves to be quoted
in full:

Slide 114*base Middle Eocene* [RDB Note: Long-term warming is observed into
the early Eocene (54.8–49.0 Ma), with peak SST between 51 and 48 Ma and
rapid cooling of 4°C beginning at 48 Ma. Thus, any claims of of being coeval
needs to line up with 48 mya.]

* lasted about 800,000 years*

* coeval with onset of Arctic cooling* [RDB Note: I'll give a pass here as
this was a cooling event. That being said, glaciation in the Northern
Hemisphere began much later, between 10 and 6 million years ago.]

 *coeval with onset of Antarctic glaciation* [RDB Note: Oops. Antaractic
glaciation happened 34 Ma.]

 *coeval with massive fall in CO2 *[RDB Note: Oops. The two data points
happened 51 Ma + 1.3 myr - 0.2 myr]

Rich Blinne
Member ASA

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Received on Tue Aug 26 20:15:52 2008