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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Richard DaviesORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. To what extent methane liberated from marine hydrate will enter the ocean during a warmer world is unknown. Although methane release due to hydrate dissociation has been modelled, it is unclear whether or not methane will reach the seafloor during a warmer world and therefore contribute to oceanic and atmospheric budgets. Here we show, using a new three-dimensional (3-D) seismic dataset, that some hydrate deposits surround the gas chimneys passing through the HSZ. Bottom water warming since the last glacial maximum (LGM) is interpreted to cause hydrate dissociation but critically some of the released methane was not vented to the ocean. The released gas caused seal failure and free gas entered the hydrate stability zone (HSZ) through vertical gas chimneys to where new hydrate accumulations formed. This process is a new evidence for methane recycling and could account in part for the lack of methane in ice core records that cover warming events during the late Quaternary. This research provides new insight into how methane could be recycled rather than vented during a warmer world.
Author(s): Li A, Davies RJ, Mathias S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Marine and Petroleum Geology
Year: 2017
Volume: 84
Pages: 323-331
Print publication date: 01/06/2017
Online publication date: 15/04/2017
Acceptance date: 13/04/2017
Date deposited: 26/11/2018
ISSN (print): 0264-8172
ISSN (electronic): 1873-4073
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.04.007
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2017.04.007
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