[arthurus]

There is no mention of any actual evidence for this supposed release of methane. They seem to have deduced that there was a temperature rise 55 million years ago and methane release is the explanation they theorized because these clathrates had been discovered and they could make a dandy explanation for the climate maximum.

Their climate models show that a rise in "greenhouse gases" would produce a temperature rise which proves that methane clathrates were the cause of the maximum 55 mega years ago.

Climatology is a science of circular deduction, a new superior form of logic that proves all of the politically correct suppositions that just have to be right.

And gigatons would be billions of tons, not trillions, a trifling error.

[The Electrician]

And gigatons would be billions of tons, not trillions, a trifling error.

A note of clarification - the article stated:

releasing an estimated 2,000 gigatons (2 trillion tons) of methane

If one billion is 10 to the 9th power, 1,000 billion is 1 trillion, or ten to the 12th power (in US terms, not British terms), then I believe that the conversion as stated is proper and accurate.

[cogitator]

Read this:

Ocean Burps and Climate Change

This provides the research background and data/evidence that there was a large methane release at this time, and also discusses why other possible causes of the observed effect (a major 12C/13C ratio shift) aren't as plausible as the methane hypothesis.

I found this Web page very interesting, informative and understandable: until I read the article that led off this thread, I'd never heard of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.