Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials
Methane hydrates are widely distributed along continental margins, representing a potential source of methane to the ocean and atmosphere, possibly influencing Earth’s climate. Yet, little is known about the response of methane hydrates to global climate change, especially at the timescale of glacia...
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Online Access: | https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/109623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1130/B36859.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/ |
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ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:99492 2024-04-28T08:28:20+00:00 Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials Li, Niu Wang, Xudong Feng, Junxi Chen, Fang Zhou, Yang Wang, Maoyu Chen, Tianyu Bayon, Germain Peckmann, Jörn Cheng, Hai Edwards, R. Lawrence Chen, Duofu Feng, Dong 2024-03 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/109623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1130/B36859.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/ eng eng Geological Society of America https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/109623.pdf doi:10.1130/B36859.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Geological Society Of America Bulletin (0016-7606) (Geological Society of America), 2024-03 , Vol. 136 , N. 2-3 , P. 917-927 text Article info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2024 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1130/B36859.1 2024-04-09T23:31:56Z Methane hydrates are widely distributed along continental margins, representing a potential source of methane to the ocean and atmosphere, possibly influencing Earth’s climate. Yet, little is known about the response of methane hydrates to global climate change, especially at the timescale of glacial-interglacial cycles. Here we present a chronology of methane seepage from seep carbonates derived from a series of tens to hundreds of meters long hydrate-bearing sediment records from the South China Sea, drilled at water depths of 664−871 m. We find that six out of seven episodes of intense methane seepage during the last 440,000 years were related to hydrate dissociation, all coinciding with major interglacials, the so-called Marine Isotope Stages 1, 5e, 7c, 9c, and 11c. Using numerical modeling, we show that these events of methane hydrate instability were possibly triggered by the rapid warming of intermediate waters by ∼2.5−3.5 °C in the South China Sea. This finding provides direct evidence for the sensitivity of the deep marine methane hydrate reservoir to glacial-interglacial climatic and oceanographic cyclicity. Article in Journal/Newspaper Methane hydrate Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Geological Society of America Bulletin |
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Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
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ftarchimer |
language |
English |
description |
Methane hydrates are widely distributed along continental margins, representing a potential source of methane to the ocean and atmosphere, possibly influencing Earth’s climate. Yet, little is known about the response of methane hydrates to global climate change, especially at the timescale of glacial-interglacial cycles. Here we present a chronology of methane seepage from seep carbonates derived from a series of tens to hundreds of meters long hydrate-bearing sediment records from the South China Sea, drilled at water depths of 664−871 m. We find that six out of seven episodes of intense methane seepage during the last 440,000 years were related to hydrate dissociation, all coinciding with major interglacials, the so-called Marine Isotope Stages 1, 5e, 7c, 9c, and 11c. Using numerical modeling, we show that these events of methane hydrate instability were possibly triggered by the rapid warming of intermediate waters by ∼2.5−3.5 °C in the South China Sea. This finding provides direct evidence for the sensitivity of the deep marine methane hydrate reservoir to glacial-interglacial climatic and oceanographic cyclicity. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Li, Niu Wang, Xudong Feng, Junxi Chen, Fang Zhou, Yang Wang, Maoyu Chen, Tianyu Bayon, Germain Peckmann, Jörn Cheng, Hai Edwards, R. Lawrence Chen, Duofu Feng, Dong |
spellingShingle |
Li, Niu Wang, Xudong Feng, Junxi Chen, Fang Zhou, Yang Wang, Maoyu Chen, Tianyu Bayon, Germain Peckmann, Jörn Cheng, Hai Edwards, R. Lawrence Chen, Duofu Feng, Dong Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
author_facet |
Li, Niu Wang, Xudong Feng, Junxi Chen, Fang Zhou, Yang Wang, Maoyu Chen, Tianyu Bayon, Germain Peckmann, Jörn Cheng, Hai Edwards, R. Lawrence Chen, Duofu Feng, Dong |
author_sort |
Li, Niu |
title |
Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
title_short |
Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
title_full |
Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
title_fullStr |
Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
title_full_unstemmed |
Intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in South China Sea during past interglacials |
title_sort |
intermediate water warming caused methane hydrate instability in south china sea during past interglacials |
publisher |
Geological Society of America |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/109623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1130/B36859.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/ |
genre |
Methane hydrate |
genre_facet |
Methane hydrate |
op_source |
Geological Society Of America Bulletin (0016-7606) (Geological Society of America), 2024-03 , Vol. 136 , N. 2-3 , P. 917-927 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/109623.pdf doi:10.1130/B36859.1 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00883/99492/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1130/B36859.1 |
container_title |
Geological Society of America Bulletin |
_version_ |
1797586900729462784 |