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Abundant Early Palaeogene marine gas hydrates despite warm deep-ocean temperatures

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 848–851 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Abrupt periods of global warming between 57 and 50 million years ago—known as the Early Palaeogene hyperthermal events—were associated with the repeated injection of massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere1,2,3,4. The release of methane from the sea floor following the dissociation of gas hydrates is often invoked as a source5. However, seafloor temperatures before the events were at least 4–7 °C higher than today1, which would have limited the area of sea floor suitable for hosting gas hydrates6,7. Palaeogene gas hydrate reservoirs may therefore not have been sufficient to provide a significant fraction of the carbon released. Here we use numerical simulations of gas hydrate accumulation8 at Palaeogene seafloor temperatures to show that near-present-day values of gas hydrates could have been hosted in the Palaeogene. Our simulations show that warmer temperatures during the Palaeogene would have enhanced the amount of organic carbon reaching the sea floor as well as the rate of methanogenesis. We find that under plausible temperature and pressure conditions, the abundance of gas hydrates would be similar or higher in the Palaeogene than at present. We conclude that methane hydrates could have been an important source of carbon during the Palaeogene hyperthermal events.

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Figure 1: The gas hydrate volume fraction (Vfrac,h≡Shφ) with respect to depth below the sea floor at different seafloor temperatures Tsf (Case I).
Figure 2: Methane production profiles with respect to depth below the sea floor at different seafloor temperatures (Case I).
Figure 3: Contour plots showing the ratio of total hydrate volume at seafloor temperature (Tsf) of 9 °C to that at 3 °C (k=Vh,9C/Vh,3C).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the US Department of Energy for financial support (under Award No. DE-AC07-05ID14517 and No. DE-FC26-06NT42960).

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Author notes

  1. Gaurav Bhatnagar

    Present address: Present address: Shell International Exploration and Production, Houston, Texas 77082, USA,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Guangsheng Gu, Gaurav Bhatnagar, George J. Hirasaki & Walter G. Chapman

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Gerald R. Dickens

  3. Institutionen för Geologiska Vetenskaper, Stockholms Universitet, Stockholm 106 91, Sweden

    Gerald R. Dickens

  4. College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA

    Frederick S. Colwell

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  1. Guangsheng Gu
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Contributions

G.R.D. conceived the overarching hypothesis; G.B. constructed a prototype numerical model published elsewhere with insights from G.J.H, W.G.C. and G.R.D.; G.G. modified the model for this work, carried out the simulations and prepared the data, with advice and input from G.J.H, G.R.D. and W.G.C.; G.G. and G.R.D. wrote the initial manuscript; all authors contributed to subsequent revisions.

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Correspondence to Guangsheng Gu or Gerald R. Dickens.

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Gu, G., Dickens, G., Bhatnagar, G. et al. Abundant Early Palaeogene marine gas hydrates despite warm deep-ocean temperatures. Nature Geosci 4, 848–851 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1301

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