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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2021-03-19
    Description: Methane seepage from the upper continental slopes of Western Svalbard has previously been attributed to gas hydrate dissociation induced by anthropogenic warming of ambient bottom waters. Here we show that sediment cores drilled off Prins Karls Foreland contain freshwater from dissociating hydrates. However, our modeling indicates that the observed pore water freshening began around 8 ka BP when the rate of isostatic uplift outpaced eustatic sea-level rise. The resultant local shallowing and lowering of hydrostatic pressure forced gas hydrate dissociation and dissolved chloride depletions consistent with our geochemical analysis. Hence, we propose that hydrate dissociation was triggered by postglacial isostatic rebound rather than anthropogenic warming. Furthermore, we show that methane fluxes from dissociating hydrates were considerably smaller than present methane seepage rates implying that gas hydrates were not a major source of methane to the oceans, but rather acted as a dynamic seal, regulating methane release from deep geological reservoirs.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2021-03-19
    Description: There is a strong spatial correlation between submarine slope failures and the occurrence of gas hydrates. This has been attributed to the dynamic nature of gas hydrate systems and the potential reduction of slope stability due to bottom water warming or sea level drop. However, 30 years of research into this process found no solid supporting evidence. Here we present new reflection seismic data from the Arctic Ocean and numerical modelling results supporting a different link between hydrates and slope stability. Hydrates reduce sediment permeability and cause build-up of overpressure at the base of the gas hydrate stability zone. Resulting hydro-fracturing forms pipe structures as pathways for overpressured fluids to migrate upward. Where these pipe structures reach shallow permeable beds, this overpressure transfers laterally and destabilises the slope. This process reconciles the spatial correlation of submarine landslides and gas hydrate, and it is independent of environmental change and water depth.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: Large amounts of methane are stored in continental margins as gas hydrates. They are stable under high pressure and low temperature, but react sensitively to environmental changes. Bottom water temperature and sea level changes were considered as main contributors to gas hydrate dynamics after the last glaciation. However, here we show with numerical simulations that pulses of increased sedimentation dominantly controlled hydrate stability during the end of the last glaciation offshore mid-Norway. Sedimentation pulses triggered widespread gas hydrate dissociation and explains the formation of ubiquitous blowout pipes in water depths of 600 to 800 m. Maximum gas hydrate dissociation correlates spatially and temporally with the formation or reactivation of pockmarks, which is constrained by radiocarbon dating of Isorropodon nyeggaensis bivalve shells. Our results highlight that rapid changes of sedimentation can have a strong impact on gas hydrate systems affecting fluid flow and gas seepage activity, slope stability and the carbon cycle.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2019-10-24
    Description: The upward migration of gas through marine sediments typically manifests itself as gas chimneys or pipes in seismic images and can lead to the formation of cold seeps. Gas seepage is often linked to morphological features like seabed domes, pockmarks, and carbonate build-ups. In this context, sediment doming is discussed to be a precursor of pockmark formation. Here, we present parametric echosounder, sidescan sonar, and two-dimensional seismic data from Opouawe Bank, offshore New Zealand, providing field evidence for sediment doming. Geomechanical quantification of the stresses required for doming show that the calculated gas column heights are geologically feasible and consistent with the observed geophysical data. The progression from channeled gas flow to gas trapping results in overpressure build-up in the shallow sediment. Our results suggest that by breaching of domed seafloor sediments a new seep site can develop, but contrary to ongoing discussion this does not necessarily lead to the formation of pockmarks.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2019-10-24
    Description: During opening of a new ocean magma intrudes into the surrounding sedimentary basins. Heat provided by the intrusions matures the host rock creating metamorphic aureoles potentially releasing large amounts of hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons may migrate to the seafloor in hydrothermal vent complexes in sufficient volumes to trigger global warming, e.g. during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Mound structures at the top of buried hydrothermal vent complexes observed in seismic data off Norway were previously interpreted as mud volcanoes and the amount of released hydrocarbon was estimated based on this interpretation. Here, we present new geophysical and geochemical data from the Gulf of California suggesting that such mound structures could in fact be edifices constructed by the growth of black-smoker type chimneys rather than mud volcanoes. We have evidence for two buried and one active hydrothermal vent system outside the rift axis. The vent releases several hundred degrees Celsius hot fluids containing abundant methane, mid-ocean-ridge-basalt (MORB)-type helium, and precipitating solids up to 300 m high into the water column. Our observations challenge the idea that methane is emitted slowly from rift-related vents. The association of large amounts of methane with hydrothermal fluids that enter the water column at high pressure and temperature provides an efficient mechanism to transport hydrocarbons into the water column and atmosphere, lending support to the hypothesis that rapid climate change such as during the PETM can be triggered by magmatic intrusions into organic-rich sedimentary basins.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2019-10-24
    Description: Methane seepage at south Hydrate Ridge (offshore Oregon, United States), one of the best-studied examples of gas venting through gas hydrates, is the seafloor expression of a vigorous fluid flow system at depth. The seeps host chemosynthetic ecosystems and release significant amounts of carbon into the ocean. With new three-dimensional seismic data, we image strata and structures beneath the ridge in unprecedented detail to determine the geological processes controlling the style of focused fluid flow. Numerical fluid flow simulations reveal the influence of free gas within a stratigraphic unit known as Horizon A, beneath the base of gas hydrate stability (BGHS). Free gas within Horizon A increases the total mobility of the composite water-gas fluid, resulting in high fluid flux that accumulates at the intersection between Horizon A and the BGHS. This intersection controls the development of fluid overpressure at the BGHS, and together with a well-defined network of faults, reveals the link between the gas hydrate system at depth and methane seepage at the surface.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 7
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    Nature Research
    In:  Nature, 574 (7776). p. 36.
    Publication Date: 2020-01-09
    Type: Article , NonPeerReviewed
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2022-01-31
    Description: The formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is critical for the evolution of the global climate, but the timing of its onset is not well constrained. Here, we present new seismic evidence of widespread Late Eocene to Oligocene marine diagenetic chert in sedimentary drift deposits east of New Zealand indicating prolonged periods of blooms of siliceous microorganisms starting ~36 million years ago (Ma). These major blooms reflect the initiation of the arrival and upwelling of northern-sourced, nutrient-rich deep equatorial Pacific waters at the high latitudes of the South Pacific. We show that this change in circulation was linked to the initiation of a proto-ACC, which occurred ~6 Ma earlier than the currently estimated onset of the ACC at 30 Ma. We propose that the associated increased primary productivity and carbon burial facilitated atmospheric carbon dioxide reduction contributing to the expansion of Antarctic Ice Sheet at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2023-02-08
    Description: Large amounts of methane are trapped within gas hydrate in subseabed sediments in the Arctic Ocean, and bottom-water warming may induce the release of methane from the seafloor. Yet the effect of seasonal temperature variations on methane seepage activity remains unknown as surveys in Arctic seas are conducted mainly in summer. Here we compare the activity of cold seeps along the gas hydrate stability limit offshore Svalbard during cold (May 2016) and warm (August 2012) seasons. Hydro-acoustic surveys revealed a substantially decreased seepage activity during cold bottom-water conditions, corresponding to a 43% reduction of total cold seeps and methane release rates compared with warmer conditions. We demonstrate that cold seeps apparently hibernate during cold seasons, when more methane gas becomes trapped in the subseabed sediments. Such a greenhouse gas capacitor increases the potential for methane release during summer months. Seasonal bottom-water temperature variations are common on the Arctic continental shelves. We infer that methane-seep hibernation is a widespread phenomenon that is underappreciated in global methane budgets, leading to overestimates in current calculations.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 10
    Publication Date: 2024-01-14
    Description: Marine methane hydrate is an ice-like substance that is stable in sediment around marine continental margins where water depths are greater than ~450–700 m. The release of methane due to melting of hydrates is considered to be a mechanism for past global carbon-cycle perturbations and could exacerbate ongoing anthropogenic climate change. Increases in bottom-water temperature at the landward limit of marine hydrate around continental margins, where vulnerable hydrate exists at or below the seabed, cause methane to vent into the ocean. However, this setting represents only ~3.5% of the global hydrate reservoir. The potential for methane from hydrate in deeper water to reach the atmosphere was considered negligible. Here we use three-dimensional (3D) seismic imagery to show that, on the Mauritanian margin, methane migrated at least 40 km below the base of the hydrate stability zone and vented through 23 pockmarks at the shelf break, probably during warmer Quaternary interglacials. We demonstrate that, under suitable circumstances, some of the 96.5% of methane bound in deeper water distal hydrates can reach the seafloor and vent into the ocean beyond the landward limit of marine hydrate. This reservoir should therefore be considered for estimating climate change-induced methane release during a warming world.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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