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Methane Hydrates, Carbon Cycling, and Environmental Change

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Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Overview

Enormous amounts of methane reside as solid gas hydrate and free gas bubbles in the pore space of marine sediment along continental margins. Most of this methane has formed through the microbial breakdown of organic matter originally deposited on the seafloor. At present, a small fraction escapes to ocean waters through seafloor venting. Reaction with dissolved sulfate consumes additional methane in pore waters of shallow sediment. These potentially important carbon fluxes, which remain absent from most global carbon cycle models, could change dramatically though time because the stability and distribution of gas hydrate and free gas depend on external conditions, particularly ocean temperature. Chemical anomalies in sediment or sedimentary rocks may document such variations in methane release and hint at an under-appreciated mechanism for past climate change.

Chemistry and theoretical occurrence

At relatively low temperatures, high pressures and high gas concentration,...

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Authors
  1. Gerald R. Dickens
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  2. Clayton Forswall
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA

    Vivien Gornitz

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag

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Dickens, G.R., Forswall, C. (2009). Methane Hydrates, Carbon Cycling, and Environmental Change. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_140

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