A bit of fearmongering IMHO; these carcasses are what in a few thousand (million?) years will become oil. The process of dead sea creatures accumulating on the sea floor and getting covered in sediment is nothing new.

Ironically it's humans pumping up these carbon stores (oil) and burning them that's causing all this.

« These microscopic ghosts contain a reservoir of carbon estimated at a staggering 662 gigatons—200 times greater than the amount stored in all living plants and animals—that could come back to haunt us if unleashed from its watery grave as planet-warming carbon dioxide. »

...yes, Scientific American, yes it could. That's exactly what we're doing. -.-

> “The deeper molecules were easier because their surface was plainer.”

I can't tell, is this is a mistaken transcription and they meant "planar"?

I think they just meant simpler. Are these molecules ever completely planar?

Aromatic ring systems are planar. The molecule in the picture looks like one big aromatic ring system to me.