Nature’s Own: Ocean yields gases that had seemed humanmade

Chemical analyses of seawater provide the first direct evidence that the ocean may be a significant source of certain atmospheric gases that scientists had previously assumed to be produced primarily by industrial activity.

The two gases–methyl nitrate and ethyl nitrate–are members of a group called alkyl nitrates. Such substances consist of a nitrate ion chemically bonded to a hydrocarbon molecule that’s lost one of its hydrogen atoms.