An international team of geoscientists led by a volcanologist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick has discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of eruptions.
An international team of geoscientists led by a volcanologist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick has discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of eruptions.
In doing so, the research team has solved a long-standing mystery over what caused prolonged episodes of warming during turning points in Earth’s climate history. The work is detailed in today’s issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
“Our findings are important because they identify a hidden source of CO2 to the atmosphere during moments in Earth’s past when climate has warmed abruptly and stayed warm much longer than we expected,” said Benjamin Black, who led the study and is an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the School of Arts and Sciences. “We think we have figured out an important piece of the puzzle for how Earth’s climate was disrupted, and perhaps just as importantly, how it recovered.”
Read more at: Rutgers University
Rutgers Earth and Planetary Sciences doctoral student Lev Jukna-Parsons examines a large dike in the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. Millions of years ago, this sheet transported magma towards Earth’s surface during the Columbia River Basalt eruptions. (Photo Credit: Benjamin Black)
