Temporal Constraints on Hydrate-Controlled Methane Seepage off Svalbard
What Does It All Mean?
Strong emissions of methane have recently been observed from shallow sediments in Arctic seas. Berndt et al. (p. 284, published online 2 January) present a record of methane seepage from marine sediments off the coast of Svalbard showing that such emissions have been present for at least 3000 years, the result of normal seasonal fluctuations of bottom waters. Thus, contemporary observations of strong methane venting do not necessarily mean that the clathrates that are the source of the methane are decomposing at a faster rate than in the past.
Abstract
Methane hydrate is an icelike substance that is stable at high pressure and low temperature in continental margin sediments. Since the discovery of a large number of gas flares at the landward termination of the gas hydrate stability zone off Svalbard, there has been concern that warming bottom waters have started to dissociate large amounts of gas hydrate and that the resulting methane release may possibly accelerate global warming. Here, we corroborate that hydrates play a role in the observed seepage of gas, but we present evidence that seepage off Svalbard has been ongoing for at least 3000 years and that seasonal fluctuations of 1° to 2°C in the bottom-water temperature cause periodic gas hydrate formation and dissociation, which focus seepage at the observed sites.
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Supplementary Material
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Volume 343 | Issue 6168
17 January 2014
17 January 2014
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Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Received: 23 September 2013
Accepted: 16 December 2013
Published in print: 17 January 2014
Acknowledgments
This manuscript is dedicated to the memory of our beloved colleague and friend Victoria Bertics. We are grateful to K. Bergmann and the officers and crew of R/V Maria S. Merian for their help at sea. The German Research Foundation (DFG), the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” supported the project financially. Further support came from the ESONET project (European Seas Observatory NETwork), the PERGAMON project (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Figure 1 was drafted by using Generic Mapping Tools (22). Supplementary data are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.824947.
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