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Science 30 July 1999:
Vol. 285. no. 5428, pp. 724 - 727
DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5428.724
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Reports

Mechanisms of Climate Warming at the End of the Paleocene

Santo Bains, 1* Richard M. Corfield, 1 Richard D. Norris 2

An abrupt episode of global warming marked the end of the Paleocene epoch. Oxygen and carbon isotope records from two widely separated sites support the notion that degassing of biogenic methane hydrate may have been an important factor in altering Earth's climate. The data show evidence for multiple injections of methane, separated by intervals in which the carbon cycle was in stasis. Correlations between the two sites suggest that even these small-scale events were global in nature.

1 Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PR, UK.
2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Santo.Bains{at}earth.ox.ac.uk

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