Gas hydrate dissociation linked to contemporary ocean warming in the southern hemisphere
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Date | 2020-07 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Author(s) | Ketzer Marcelo1, Praeg Daniel2, 3, Rodrigues Luiz F.3, Augustin Adolpho3, Pivel Maria A. G.4, Rahmati-Abkenar Mahboubeh1, Miller Dennis J.5, Viana Adriano R.5, Cupertino José A.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Linnaeus University, SE-391 81, Kalmar, Sweden 2 : Géoazur, 250 rue Albert Einstein, 06560, Valbonne, France 3 : Petroleum and Natural Resources Institute, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, CEP 91619-900, Brazil 4 : Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, CEP 91509-900, Brazil 5 : Petrobras Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 20031-170, Brazil |
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Source | Nature Communications (2041-1723) (Springer Science and Business Media LLC), 2020-07 , Vol. 11 , N. 1 , P. 3788 (9p.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DOI | 10.1038/s41467-020-17289-z | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 43 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abstract | Ocean warming related to climate change has been proposed to cause the dissociation of gas hydrate deposits and methane leakage on the seafloor. This process occurs in places where the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone in sediments meets the overlying warmer oceans in upper slope settings. Here we present new evidence based on the analysis of a large multidisciplinary and multi-scale dataset from such a location in the western South Atlantic, which records massive gas release to the ocean. The results provide a unique opportunity to examine ocean-hydrate interactions over millennial and decadal scales, and the first evidence from the southern hemisphere for the effects of contemporary ocean warming on gas hydrate stability. Widespread hydrate dissociation results in a highly focused advective methane flux that is not fully accessible to anaerobic oxidation, challenging the assumption that it is mostly consumed by sulfate reduction before reaching the seafloor. |
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