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Global change

Hydrocarbon-driven warming

A dramatic historical episode of global warming seems to have been driven by the release of huge amounts of hydrocarbons. New evidence for what might have happened comes from the sea floor off Norway.

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Figure 1: Methane release during the initial Eocene thermal maximum (IETM), around 55 million years ago.

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Figure 2: Seismic profile of active and inactive ‘fluid-escape conduits’ on the upper continental slope southwest of the modern Niger River Delta.

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Dickens, G. Hydrocarbon-driven warming. Nature 429, 513–515 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/429513a

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