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The Story of the Second Greenhouse Gas – CH4
- The Permian Extinction – two burps
- As temperatures rise, species start to go extinct. Plants and plankton die off and oxygen levels plummet. This is what seems to have happened 251 million years ago.
- The explosion of gas through the surface of the oceans has been termed a "methane burp". A very large methane burp at the end of the Permian could have produced enough carbon-12 to make up the deficit [the amount that actually has been measured].
- The ice-core data shows the distinction between the first and second burp by the ratio of C13 present (higher in second, lower in first).