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Evidence for massive methane hydrate destabilization during the penultimate interglacial warming. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2201871119. [PMID: 35994649 PMCID: PMC9436375 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2201871119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Our results identify an exceptionally large warming of the equatorial Atlantic intermediate waters and strong evidence of methane release and oxidation almost certainly due to massive methane hydrate destabilization during the early part of the penultimate warm episode (126,000 to 125,000 y ago). This major warming was caused by reduced advection of cold water from high latitudes and enhanced downward heat diffusion in response to a brief episode of meltwater-induced weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and amplified by a warm mean climate. Our results highlight climatic feedback processes associated with the penultimate climate warming that can serve as a paleoanalog for modern ongoing 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 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 δ13C spike throughout the entire water column, recorded as primary signatures in single and pooled shells of multitaxa foraminifers. This extremely negative δ13C 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.
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Abstract
This Special Issue reports research spanning from the analysis of indirect data, modelling, laboratory and geological data confirming the intrinsic multidisciplinarity of the gas hydrate studies. The study areas are (1) Arctic, (2) Brazil, (3) Chile and (4) the Mediterranean region. The results furnished an important tessera of the knowledge about the relationship of a gas hydrate system with other complex natural phenomena such as climate change, slope stability and earthquakes, and human activities.
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Bock M, Schmitt J, Beck J, Seth B, Chappellaz J, Fischer H. Glacial/interglacial wetland, biomass burning, and geologic methane emissions constrained by dual stable isotopic CH 4 ice core records. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:E5778-E5786. [PMID: 28673973 PMCID: PMC5530640 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1613883114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Atmospheric methane (CH4) records reconstructed from polar ice cores represent an integrated view on processes predominantly taking place in the terrestrial biogeosphere. Here, we present dual stable isotopic methane records [δ13CH4 and δD(CH4)] from four Antarctic ice cores, which provide improved constraints on past changes in natural methane sources. Our isotope data show that tropical wetlands and seasonally inundated floodplains are most likely the controlling sources of atmospheric methane variations for the current and two older interglacials and their preceding glacial maxima. The changes in these sources are steered by variations in temperature, precipitation, and the water table as modulated by insolation, (local) sea level, and monsoon intensity. Based on our δD(CH4) constraint, it seems that geologic emissions of methane may play a steady but only minor role in atmospheric CH4 changes and that the glacial budget is not dominated by these sources. Superimposed on the glacial/interglacial variations is a marked difference in both isotope records, with systematically higher values during the last 25,000 y compared with older time periods. This shift cannot be explained by climatic changes. Rather, our isotopic methane budget points to a marked increase in fire activity, possibly caused by biome changes and accumulation of fuel related to the late Pleistocene megafauna extinction, which took place in the course of the last glacial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Bock
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland;
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jochen Schmitt
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jonas Beck
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Barbara Seth
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jérôme Chappellaz
- CNRS, IGE (Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement), F-38000 Grenoble, France
- University of Grenoble Alpes, IGE, F-38000 Grenoble, France
- IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), IGE, F-38000 Grenoble, France
- Grenoble INP (Institut National Polytechnique), IGE, F-38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Hubertus Fischer
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland;
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Xie S, Yang H, Luo G, Huang X, Liu D, Wang Y, Gong Y, Xu R. Geomicrobial functional groups: A window on the interaction between life and environments. CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN-CHINESE 2012. [DOI: 10.1007/s11434-011-4860-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Bock M, Schmitt J, Möller L, Spahni R, Blunier T, Fischer H. Hydrogen Isotopes Preclude Marine Hydrate CH
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Emissions at the Onset of Dansgaard-Oeschger Events. Science 2010; 328:1686-9. [PMID: 20576890 DOI: 10.1126/science.1187651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Bock
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Jochen Schmitt
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Lars Möller
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Renato Spahni
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Blunier
- Centre for Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
| | - Hubertus Fischer
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
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Jorry SJ, Droxler AW, Mallarino G, Dickens GR, Bentley SJ, Beaufort L, Peterson LC, Opdyke BN. Bundled turbidite deposition in the central Pandora Trough (Gulf of Papua) since Last Glacial Maximum: Linking sediment nature and accumulation to sea level fluctuations at millennial timescale. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008. [DOI: 10.1029/2006jf000649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
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