Volcanic Activity 55 Million Years Ago Linked to Caribbean Climate Change

Massive volcanic eruptions in the Caribbean Basin 55 million years ago may have caused one of the most dramatic climate changes ever, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina. Through a chain of events, the eruptions caused the release of massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere, leading to global warming that could have speeded the evolution of countless new plant and animal species, they report today in the journal Geology.

At the same time, nearly half of all deep-sea animal species became extinct, they said, asphyxiating in the suddenly warmer and stagnant deep waters of the oceans. The new discovery is based on cores drilled to a depth of 3,000 feet.