| Summary: | The paper presents discrete bivalve shell horizons in two gravity cores from seafloor pockmarks on the Vestnesa Ridge (ca. 1200 m water depth), western Svalbard (79° 00’ N, 06° 55’ W) to provide insight into the temporal and spatial dynamics of seabed methane seeps. The shell beds, dominated by two genera of the family Vesicomyidae: Phreagena s.l. and Isorropodon sp., were 20-30cm thick and centered at 250-400cm deep in the cores. The carbon isotope composition of inorganic (δ13C from -13.02‰ to +2.36‰) and organic (δ13C from -29.28‰ to -21.33‰) shell material and a two-end member mixing model indicate that these taxa derived between 8% and 43% of their nutrition from chemosynthetic bacteria. In addition, negative δ13C values for planktonic foraminifera (-6.7‰ to -3.1‰), micritic concretions identified as methane-derived authigenic carbonates, and pyrite encrusted fossil worm tubes at the shell horizons indicate a sustained paleo-methane seep environment. Combining sedimentation rates with 14C ages for bivalve material from the shell horizons, we estimate the horizons persisted for about 1000 years between approximately 17,707 to 16,680 yrs. BP (corrected). The seepage event over a 1000-year time interval was most likely associated with regional stress-related faulting and the subsequent release of over-pressurized fluids.
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