Methane gas release from the Storegga submarine landslide linked to earlyHolocene climate change: a speculative hypothesis

The 3000 km 3 Storegga submarine landslide occurred c. 8150 years ago from an area rich in gas hydrates off the western coast of Norway. A synchronous increase of 80—100 ppb in atmospheric methane concentrations is recorded in the Greenland GRIP ice core. This increase is hypothesized to reflect met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Holocene
Main Authors: Beget, James E., Addison, Jason A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2007
Subjects:
Paleontology
Earth-Surface Processes
Ecology
Archeology
Global and Planetary Change
Greenland
Norway
Storegga
GRIP
ice core
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683607076435
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683607076435
Description
Summary:The 3000 km 3 Storegga submarine landslide occurred c. 8150 years ago from an area rich in gas hydrates off the western coast of Norway. A synchronous increase of 80—100 ppb in atmospheric methane concentrations is recorded in the Greenland GRIP ice core. This increase is hypothesized to reflect methane releases from the Storegga slide debris at an estimated rate of 20—25 Tg/yr for several hundred years following the slide. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and methane release from the Storegga submarine landslide may have contributed to the rapid termination of the brief but intense 8200 yr cold event and the subsequent evolution of Holocene climate.

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