Inferred gas hydrate and permafrost stability history models linked to climate change in the Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin, Arctic Canada

• Published in: Climate of the Past
• Main Authors: Majorowicz, J., Šafanda, J. (Jan), Osadetz, K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: climate change; Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin; permafrost; Arctic; Canada; Climate change; Ice; Mackenzie Basin
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-667-2012; http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0209860

Atmospheric methane from episodic gas hydrate (GH) destabilization, the "clathrate gun" hypothesis, is proposed to affect past climates, possibly since the Phanerozoic began or earlier. In the terrestrial Beaufort-Mackenzie Basin (BMB), GHs occur commonly below thick ice-bearing permafrost (IBP), but they are rare within it. Two end-member GH models, where gas is either trapped conventionally (Case 1) or where it is trapped dynamically by GH formation (Case 2), were simulated using profile (1-D) models and a 14 Myr ground surface temperature (GST) history based on marine isotopic data, adjusted to the study setting, constrained by deep heat flow, sedimentary succession conductivity, and observed IBP and Type I GH contacts in Mallik wells. Models consider latent heat effects throughout the IBP and GH intervals.