Publication Date:
2014-06-28
Description:
Methane is an important greenhouse gas and energy resource generated dominantly by methanogens at low temperatures and through the breakdown of organic molecules at high temperatures. However, methane-formation temperatures in nature are often poorly constrained. We measured formation temperatures of thermogenic and biogenic methane using a "clumped isotope" technique. Thermogenic gases yield formation temperatures between 157 degrees and 221 degrees C, within the nominal gas window, and biogenic gases yield formation temperatures consistent with their comparatively lower-temperature formational environments (〈50 degrees C). In systems where gases have migrated and other proxies for gas-generation temperature yield ambiguous results, methane clumped-isotope temperatures distinguish among and allow for independent tests of possible gas-formation models.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stolper, D A -- Lawson, M -- Davis, C L -- Ferreira, A A -- Santos Neto, E V -- Ellis, G S -- Lewan, M D -- Martini, A M -- Tang, Y -- Schoell, M -- Sessions, A L -- Eiler, J M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Jun 27;344(6191):1500-3. doi: 10.1126/science.1254509.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. dstolper@caltech.edu. ; ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX, USA. ; Division of Geochemistry, Petrobras Research and Development Center (CENPES), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. ; U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO, USA. ; Department of Geology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA. ; Power, Environmental, and Energy Research Institute, Covina, CA, USA. ; GasConsult International Inc, Berkeley, CA, USA. ; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24970083" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Biodegradation, Environmental
;
Carbon Isotopes
;
Euryarchaeota/*metabolism
;
Gases
;
Hot Temperature
;
Methane/*biosynthesis/*chemistry
;
Models, Theoretical
;
*Oil and Gas Fields/microbiology
;
Petroleum/metabolism
;
Temperature
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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