Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming
The stability of widespread methane hydrates in shallow subsurface sediments of the marine continental margins is sensitive to temperature increases experienced by upper intermediate waters. Destabilization of methane hydrates and ensuing release of methane would produce climatic feedbacks amplifyin...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9436375 2023-05-15T17:12:06+02:00 Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming Weldeab, Syee Schneider, Ralph R. Yu, Jimin Kylander-Clark, Andrew 2022-08-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9436375/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994649 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9436375/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994649 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 2022-09-04T01:22:12Z The stability of widespread methane hydrates in shallow subsurface sediments of the marine continental margins is sensitive to temperature increases experienced by upper intermediate waters. Destabilization of methane hydrates and ensuing release of methane would produce climatic feedbacks amplifying and accelerating global warming. Hence, improved assessment of ongoing intermediate water warming is crucially important, especially that resulting from a weakening of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Our study provides an independent paleoclimatic perspective by reconstructing the thermal structure and imprint of methane oxidation throughout a water column of 1,300 m. We studied a sediment sequence from the eastern equatorial Atlantic (Gulf of Guinea), a region containing abundant shallow subsurface methane hydrates. We focused on the early part of the penultimate interglacial and present a hitherto undocumented and remarkably large intermediate water warming of 6.8 °C in response to a brief episode of meltwater-induced, modest AMOC weakening centered at 126,000 to 125,000 y ago. The warming of intermediate waters to 14 °C significantly exceeds the stability field of methane hydrates. In conjunction with this warming, our study reveals an anomalously low δ(13)C spike throughout the entire water column, recorded as primary signatures in single and pooled shells of multitaxa foraminifers. This extremely negative δ(13)C excursion was almost certainly the result of massive destabilization of methane hydrates. This study documents and connects a sequence of climatic events and climatic feedback processes associated with and triggered by the penultimate climate warming that can serve as a paleoanalog for modern ongoing warming. Text Methane hydrate PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 35 |
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Physical Sciences Weldeab, Syee Schneider, Ralph R. Yu, Jimin Kylander-Clark, Andrew Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
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Physical Sciences |
description |
The stability of widespread methane hydrates in shallow subsurface sediments of the marine continental margins is sensitive to temperature increases experienced by upper intermediate waters. Destabilization of methane hydrates and ensuing release of methane would produce climatic feedbacks amplifying and accelerating global warming. Hence, improved assessment of ongoing intermediate water warming is crucially important, especially that resulting from a weakening of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Our study provides an independent paleoclimatic perspective by reconstructing the thermal structure and imprint of methane oxidation throughout a water column of 1,300 m. We studied a sediment sequence from the eastern equatorial Atlantic (Gulf of Guinea), a region containing abundant shallow subsurface methane hydrates. We focused on the early part of the penultimate interglacial and present a hitherto undocumented and remarkably large intermediate water warming of 6.8 °C in response to a brief episode of meltwater-induced, modest AMOC weakening centered at 126,000 to 125,000 y ago. The warming of intermediate waters to 14 °C significantly exceeds the stability field of methane hydrates. In conjunction with this warming, our study reveals an anomalously low δ(13)C spike throughout the entire water column, recorded as primary signatures in single and pooled shells of multitaxa foraminifers. This extremely negative δ(13)C excursion was almost certainly the result of massive destabilization of methane hydrates. This study documents and connects a sequence of climatic events and climatic feedback processes associated with and triggered by the penultimate climate warming that can serve as a paleoanalog for modern ongoing warming. |
format |
Text |
author |
Weldeab, Syee Schneider, Ralph R. Yu, Jimin Kylander-Clark, Andrew |
author_facet |
Weldeab, Syee Schneider, Ralph R. Yu, Jimin Kylander-Clark, Andrew |
author_sort |
Weldeab, Syee |
title |
Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
title_short |
Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
title_full |
Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
title_sort |
evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9436375/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994649 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 |
genre |
Methane hydrate |
genre_facet |
Methane hydrate |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9436375/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35994649 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201871119 |
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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119 |
container_issue |
35 |
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