Publications by authors named "Arkadiusz Derkowski"
The release of methane into the atmosphere through destabilization of clathrates is a positive feedback mechanism capable of amplifying global warming trends that may have operated several times in the geological past. Such methane release is a hypothesized cause or amplifier for one of the most drastic global warming events in Earth history, the end of the Marinoan 'snowball Earth' ice age, ∼635 Myr ago. A key piece of evidence supporting this hypothesis is the occurrence of exceptionally depleted carbon isotope signatures (δ(13)C(PDB) down to -48‰; ref.
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- The clay mineralogy of the Doushantuo Formation in South China is analyzed to understand paleoclimatic conditions of the Ediacaran period where the earliest animal fossils were found.
- The dominant clay minerals identified are trioctahedral smectite (saponite) and its diagenetic products, indicating an early diagenetic process occurring under alkaline conditions.
- The unique presence of saponite in the Yangtze Gorges area, absent in nearby regions, suggests localized alkaline environments, which may have supported early animal life, including significant fossil discoveries.