Mechanistic insights into a hydrate contribution to the Paleocene-Eocene carbon cycle perturbation from coupled thermohydraulic simulations
Mechanistic insights into a hydrate contribution to the Paleocene-Eocene carbon cycle perturbation from coupled thermohydraulic simulations
During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the carbon isotopic signature (δ13C) of surface carbon-bearing phases decreased abruptly by at least 2.5 to 3.0 ‰. This carbon isotope excursion (CIE) has been attributed to widespread methane hydrate dissociation in response to rapid ocean warming. We ran a thermohydraulic modeling code to simulate hydrate dissociation due to ocean warming for various PETM scenarios. Our results show that hydrate dissociation in response to such warming can be rapid but suggest that methane release to the ocean is modest and delayed by hundreds to thousands of years after the onset of dissociation, limiting the potential for positive feedback from emissions-induced warming. In all of our simulations at least half of the dissociated hydrate methane remains beneath the seabed, suggesting that the pre-PETM hydrate inventory needed to account for all of the CIE is at least double that required for isotopic mass balance.
hydrate, methane, PETM
8637-8644
Minshull, T.A.
bf413fb5-849e-4389-acd7-0cb0d644e6b8
Marín-Moreno, H.
e466cafd-bd5c-47a1-8522-e6938e7086a4
Armstrong McKay, D.I.
9e7fc75d-311e-4980-9911-288d965a9e56
Wilson, P.A.
f940a9f0-fa5a-4a64-9061-f0794bfbf7c6
30 August 2016
Minshull, T.A.
bf413fb5-849e-4389-acd7-0cb0d644e6b8
Marín-Moreno, H.
e466cafd-bd5c-47a1-8522-e6938e7086a4
Armstrong McKay, D.I.
9e7fc75d-311e-4980-9911-288d965a9e56
Wilson, P.A.
f940a9f0-fa5a-4a64-9061-f0794bfbf7c6
Minshull, T.A., Marín-Moreno, H., Armstrong McKay, D.I. and Wilson, P.A.
(2016)
Mechanistic insights into a hydrate contribution to the Paleocene-Eocene carbon cycle perturbation from coupled thermohydraulic simulations.
Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (16), .
(doi:10.1002/2016GL069676).
Abstract
During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the carbon isotopic signature (δ13C) of surface carbon-bearing phases decreased abruptly by at least 2.5 to 3.0 ‰. This carbon isotope excursion (CIE) has been attributed to widespread methane hydrate dissociation in response to rapid ocean warming. We ran a thermohydraulic modeling code to simulate hydrate dissociation due to ocean warming for various PETM scenarios. Our results show that hydrate dissociation in response to such warming can be rapid but suggest that methane release to the ocean is modest and delayed by hundreds to thousands of years after the onset of dissociation, limiting the potential for positive feedback from emissions-induced warming. In all of our simulations at least half of the dissociated hydrate methane remains beneath the seabed, suggesting that the pre-PETM hydrate inventory needed to account for all of the CIE is at least double that required for isotopic mass balance.
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Accepted/In Press date: 28 July 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 July 2016
Published date: 30 August 2016
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We thank Gerald Dickens and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful comments that considerably improved the quality of the manuscript. T.A.M. and P.A.W. were supported by Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit awards. H.M.M. was partly supported by the TALENTS FVG Programme—Activity 1—Incoming mobility scheme—European Social Fund, Operational Programme 2007–2013, Objective 2 Regional Competitiveness and Employment, Axis 5 Transnational cooperation. D.I.A.M. was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council PhD studentship (NERC grant NE/J500112/1). The data used in this paper are published in the cited sources, and the code used is available via http://esd1.lbl.gov/research/projects/tough/software/.
Keywords:
hydrate, methane, PETM
Organisations:
Geology & Geophysics, Marine Geoscience, Geography & Environment, Paleooceanography & Palaeoclimate
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 398851
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/398851
ISSN: 0094-8276
PURE UUID: a72dfd1b-0be4-47a8-ba05-fb135c213e40
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Date deposited: 02 Aug 2016 12:20
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:47
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Author:
H. Marín-Moreno
Author:
D.I. Armstrong McKay
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