Evidence for Late Jurassic release of methane from gas hydrate

Four Late Jurassic carbonate successions deposited in the Tethys-Atlantic Ocean record a negative carbon isotope excursion of at least 2‰. The excursion is present in both organic and carbonate carbon records and is comparable in magnitude and duration to isotopic changes during the late Paleocene thermal maximum. Our results indicate that during the Late Jurassic, long considered a warm greenhouse time, additional greenhouse gas was input to …