--> Climate and Environmental Crises Caused by Natural Carbon Release, Svensen, Henrik; Aarnes, Ingrid; Polteau, Stephane; Fristad, Kirsten; Planke, Sverre, #90100 (2009)

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Climate and Environmental Crises Caused by Natural Carbon Release

Svensen, Henrik1
 Aarnes, Ingrid1
 Polteau, Stephane1
 Fristad, Kirsten1
 Planke, Sverre2

1University of Oslo, Physics of Geological Processes, Oslo, Norway.
2Volcanic Basin Petroleum Research, Oslo, Norway.

Natural release of carbon gases from sedimentary reservoirs occur in a number of different geological systems today, including volcanoes, mud volcanoes, petroleum seeps, and high heat flow systems. The fluxes from these reservoirs are not large enough to significantly influence the present day climate due to the large anthropogenic factor. In earlier geological epochs, however, there is abundant evidence that the carbon cycle was perturbed due to natural carbon gas release, especially during times when the so called Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) were formed. This talk will present some of the key climate and extinction events the last 250 million years, and the main hypotheses available to explain the environmental changes. The main focus will be the role of gas generation around volcanic intrusions in organic-rich sedimentary basins, and how the gases could have been released to the atmosphere. Included in this presentation are 1) numerical models to study the generation of hydrocarbons from shale during rapid (10-100 y) heating to ~500 °C, 2) natural examples and calibration data from Siberia (Tunguska Basin and End-Permian extinction about 252 Ma ago), South-Africa (Karoo Basin and Toarcian global warming about 182 Ma ago) and offshore Norway (Vøring Basin and Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum about 55 Ma ago), and 3) the geology and geochemistry of the pipes responsible for gas release.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90100©2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition 15-18 November 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil