Katz ME, Pak DK, Dickens GR, Miller KG
Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Department of Geological Sciences and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. School of Earth Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
Science. 1999 Nov 19;286(5444):1531-1533. doi: 10.1126/science.286.5444.1531.
Lithologic, faunal, seismic, and isotopic evidence from the Blake Nose (subtropical western North Atlantic) links a massive release of biogenic methane approximately 55.5 million years ago to a warming of deep-ocean and high-latitude surface waters, a large perturbation in the combined ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle (the largest of the past 90 million years), a mass extinction event in benthic faunas, and a radiation of mammalian orders. The deposition of a mud clast interval and seismic evidence for slope disturbance are associated with intermediate water warming, massive carbon input to the global exogenic carbon cycle, pelagic carbonate dissolution, a decrease in dissolved oxygen, and a benthic foraminiferal extinction event. These events provide evidence to confirm the gas hydrate dissociation hypothesis and identify the Blake Nose as a site of methane release.
来自布莱克海隆（北大西洋西部亚热带地区）的岩性、动物群、地震和同位素证据表明，大约5550万年前大量生物源甲烷的释放与深海和高纬度表层海水变暖、海洋 - 大气碳循环的巨大扰动（过去9000万年中最大的一次）、底栖动物群的大规模灭绝事件以及哺乳动物目辐射有关。泥质碎屑层段的沉积和斜坡扰动的地震证据与中层水变暖、全球外生碳循环的大量碳输入、远洋碳酸盐溶解、溶解氧减少以及底栖有孔虫灭绝事件有关。这些事件为证实天然气水合物分解假说提供了证据，并将布莱克海隆确定为甲烷释放的地点。
