Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change
International audience Methane frozen into hydrate makes up a large reservoir of potentially volatile carbon below the sea floor and associated with permafrost soils. This reservoir intuitively seems precarious, because hydrate ice floats in water, and melts at Earth surface conditions. The hydrate...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2007
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882/document https://hal.science/hal-00297882/file/bgd-4-993-2007.pdf |
id |
ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-00297882v1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-00297882v1 2023-11-12T04:13:43+01:00 Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change Archer, D. Department of Geophysical Sciences Chicago University of Chicago 2007-04-03 https://hal.science/hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882/document https://hal.science/hal-00297882/file/bgd-4-993-2007.pdf en eng HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882/document https://hal.science/hal-00297882/file/bgd-4-993-2007.pdf info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 1810-6277 EISSN: 1810-6285 Biogeosciences Discussions https://hal.science/hal-00297882 Biogeosciences Discussions, 2007, 4 (2), pp.993-1057 [PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2007 ftccsdartic 2023-10-21T23:15:41Z International audience Methane frozen into hydrate makes up a large reservoir of potentially volatile carbon below the sea floor and associated with permafrost soils. This reservoir intuitively seems precarious, because hydrate ice floats in water, and melts at Earth surface conditions. The hydrate reservoir is so large that if 10% of the methane were released to the atmosphere within a few years, it would have an impact on the Earth's radiation budget equivalent to a factor of 10 increase in atmospheric CO 2 . Hydrates are releasing methane to the atmosphere today in response to anthropogenic warming, for example along the Arctic coastline of Siberia. However most of the hydrates are located at depths in soils and ocean sediments where anthropogenic warming and any possible methane release will take place over time scales of millennia. Individual catastrophic releases like landslides and pockmark explosions are too small to reach a sizable fraction of the hydrates. The carbon isotopic excursion at the end of the Paleocene has been interpreted as the release of thousands of Gton C, possibly from hydrates, but the time scale of the release appears to have been thousands of years, chronic rather than catastrophic. The potential climate impact in the coming century from hydrate methane release is speculative but could be comparable to climate feedbacks from the terrestrial biosphere and from peat, significant but not catastrophic. On geologic timescales, it is conceivable that hydrates could release much carbon to the atmosphere/ocean system as we do by fossil fuel combustion. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Ice Methane hydrate permafrost Siberia Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
[PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
spellingShingle |
[PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences Archer, D. Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
topic_facet |
[PHYS.ASTR.CO]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO] [SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
description |
International audience Methane frozen into hydrate makes up a large reservoir of potentially volatile carbon below the sea floor and associated with permafrost soils. This reservoir intuitively seems precarious, because hydrate ice floats in water, and melts at Earth surface conditions. The hydrate reservoir is so large that if 10% of the methane were released to the atmosphere within a few years, it would have an impact on the Earth's radiation budget equivalent to a factor of 10 increase in atmospheric CO 2 . Hydrates are releasing methane to the atmosphere today in response to anthropogenic warming, for example along the Arctic coastline of Siberia. However most of the hydrates are located at depths in soils and ocean sediments where anthropogenic warming and any possible methane release will take place over time scales of millennia. Individual catastrophic releases like landslides and pockmark explosions are too small to reach a sizable fraction of the hydrates. The carbon isotopic excursion at the end of the Paleocene has been interpreted as the release of thousands of Gton C, possibly from hydrates, but the time scale of the release appears to have been thousands of years, chronic rather than catastrophic. The potential climate impact in the coming century from hydrate methane release is speculative but could be comparable to climate feedbacks from the terrestrial biosphere and from peat, significant but not catastrophic. On geologic timescales, it is conceivable that hydrates could release much carbon to the atmosphere/ocean system as we do by fossil fuel combustion. |
author2 |
Department of Geophysical Sciences Chicago University of Chicago |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Archer, D. |
author_facet |
Archer, D. |
author_sort |
Archer, D. |
title |
Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
title_short |
Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
title_full |
Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
title_fullStr |
Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
title_sort |
methane hydrate stability and anthropogenic climate change |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882/document https://hal.science/hal-00297882/file/bgd-4-993-2007.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice Methane hydrate permafrost Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice Methane hydrate permafrost Siberia |
op_source |
ISSN: 1810-6277 EISSN: 1810-6285 Biogeosciences Discussions https://hal.science/hal-00297882 Biogeosciences Discussions, 2007, 4 (2), pp.993-1057 |
op_relation |
hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882 https://hal.science/hal-00297882/document https://hal.science/hal-00297882/file/bgd-4-993-2007.pdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782331582364778496 |