There are natural ups and downs of this greenhouse gas, which comes from volcanoes and decomposing plants and animals.

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Much of it resulted from volcanoes blasting out gases like carbon dioxide and water vapour, which allowed ice (also a mineral) to form near the poles of Earth, and possibly on Mars too.

ECONOMIST: Minerals

If the methane is produced by geological activity, it could either originate from active Martian volcanoes or from a process called serpentinisation.

BBC: Martian methane mystery deepens

But it's been tough to lure tourists away from the volcanoes and gondolas on the popular Strip.

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The alternative, that the carbon came from the volcanoes, is unlikely because the spike is much shorter than the period of volcanic activity.

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The story itself revolves around a world blackened by ash which pours perpetually from a series of volcanoes turning the earth brown and the sky red.

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As the reach of the supply chain becomes more global, the risks that affect it proliferate, from protectionism to piracy to commodity price spikes to volcanoes.

FORBES: Ash In The Supply Chain

Scientists around the globe exploit the information in myriad ways - from monitoring the health of crops and the status of volcanoes, to measuring the growth of cities and the extent of glaciers.

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These were pretty drastic steps, with complicated consequences, but they do not seem to have caused the heavens to open up over Iceland, to wipe the country from the face of the earth (unless you're counting all those erupting volcanoes).

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Volcanoes spew out huge quantities of dust, which cools the earth by shielding it from the sun's rays.

ECONOMIST: A heated controversy | The