Study finds hydrate gun hypothesis unlikely

According to the hypothesis, this melt can happen in the

a

time span of a human life, dissociating vast amounts of hydrate and releasing methane into the atmosphere. Consequently, this would lead to a runaway process in which the methane released would add to the global budget of greenhouse gases, and further accelerate the warming of the planet.

Limited impact at an Arctic site

This dramatic hypothesis inspired science fiction and scientists alike, spurring the latter to further investigate the sensitivity of hydrates. A new study in Nature Communications has found that the hydrate gun hypothesis seems increasingly unlikely, at least for a specific site in the Arctic Ocean that is highly susceptible to warming.

"Short-term temperature warming has limited impact on the gas hydrate stability. We show that warming can significantly affect gas hydrates in the seabed only when ocean temperature is constantly rising for several centuries," says the lead author of the study Dr. Wei-Li Hong of CAGE and currently Geological Survey of Norway.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-hydrate-gun-hypothesis.html#jCp