They find the threat to humanity "asleep" on the seabed

Climate change threatens to cause a mbadive carbon leakage trapped in the seabed, a process that has already occurred in the past and has resulted in an increase in atmospheric temperature of such magnitude that 39, it ended the ice age, suggests research cited by the portal Phys.org.

The study, whose results were published last January in the journal Environmental Research Letters, indicates that at the end of the Pleistocene, about 17,000 years ago, a large amount of greenhouse gases escaped from the ocean floor into the atmosphere due to: hydrothermal activity.

These submarine tanks of carbon dioxide and methane are produced when volcanic activities release gas, which is then frozen until it is encapsulated in the form of a mbad of carbon dioxide. hydrates in the liquid or solid state.

These types of deposits are scattered on the seabed of the entire planet and remain largely intact, unless disturbed by external factors, such as the warming of the ocean.

If the geologic carbon trapped in these reservoirs were released, the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be significantly increased, further aggravating climate change.

Experts warn that at the current rate of global warming, caused largely by the human factor, the oceans will reach this critical temperature by the end of the century. And they indicate, as an example, a large coal tank located in the western Pacific, off the Taiwan coast, which only needs a few more increments. degrees Celsius to lose stability.

"The last time this happened, climate change was so important that it caused the end of the ice age," said Lowell Stott, a researcher at the University of California. Southern California (USA) and lead author of the book. And he concluded, "Once this geological process has begun, we can not disable it."

RT.