56 million years ago, hot magma scorched the sediments under the Atlantic seafloor.

HOWARD LEE-1/13/2023, 4:15 AM

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• https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/scientists-image-remains-of-volcanic-burst-that-triggered-massive-warming/
• ientists have scanned a section of the North Atlantic and revealed the remnants of what had been a huge pulse of hot rock that initiated a rapid climate warming event 56 million years ago.

The climate event, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), warmed the already-hot climate of the time by about5.6° Cdue to a jump in atmospheric CO₂. Levels of that greenhouse gas rosefrom about 1,120 parts per million to about 2,020 ppm—much higher than today’s417 ppm. Although it didn’t trigger a major extinction, it still exterminated somedeep-sea creaturesandtropical plants. Scientists want…