Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin

Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin

by Graham K Westbrook, Kate E Thatcher, Eelco J Rohling, Alexander M Piotrowski, Heiko Pälike, … Anne H Osborne, Euan G Nisbet, Tim A Minshull, Mathias Lanoisellé, Rachael H James, Veit Huhnerbach, Darryl Green, Rebecca E Fisher, Anya J Crocker, Anne Chabert, Clara Bolton, Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller, Christian Berndt, Alfred Aquilina show all authors

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Geophysical Research Letters (2009)

Volume: 36, Issue: 15, Publisher: AGU, Pages: 5 PP.

Available from eprints.soton.ac.uk

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Abstract

More than 250 plumes of gas bubbles have been discovered emanating from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin, in a depth range of 150-400 m, at and above the present upper limit of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Some of the plumes extend upward to within 50 m of the sea surface. The gas is predominantly methane. Warming of the northward-flowing West Spitsbergen current by 1C over the last thirty years is likely to have increased the release of methane from the seabed by reducing the extent of the GHSZ, causing the liberation of methane from decomposing hydrate. If this process becomes widespread along Arctic continental margins, tens of Teragrams of methane per year could be released into the ocean.