We find that summer methane (CH4) release from seabed sediments west of Svalbard substantially increases CH4 concentrations in the ocean but has limited influence on the atmospheric CH4 levels. Our conclusion stems from complementary measurements at the seafloor, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere from land-based, ship and aircraft platforms during a summer campaign in 2014. We detected high ...

Arctic Ocean trough mouth fans (TMFs) represent a valuable archive of glacial-interglacial sedimentary processes that are especially important when reconstructing pre-Weichselian glaciations that may lack distinct imprints on the shelves. In 2011, we acquired the first high-resolution 3D seismic cube (~3 m vertical and 6 m horizontal resolution) on the continental slope of the SW Barents Sea by use ...

It is established that late-twentieth and twenty-first century ocean warming has forced dissociation of gas hydrates with concomitant seabed methane release. However, recent dating of methane expulsion sites suggests that gas release has been ongoing over many millennia. Here we synthesize observations of B1,900 fluid escape features—pockmarks and active gas flares—across a previously glaciated ...

The Holocene marine transgression starting at ~19 ka flooded the Arctic shelves driving extensive thawing of terrestrial permafrost. It thereby promoted methanogenesis within sediments, the dissociation of gas hydrates, and the release of formerly trapped gas, with the accumulation in pressure of released methane eventually triggering blowouts through weakened zones in the overlying and thinned ...

Thawing subsea permafrost controls methane release from the Russian Arctic shelf having a considerable impact on the climate-sensitive Arctic environment. Expulsions of methane from shallow Russian Arctic shelf areas may continue to rise in response to intense degradation of relict subsea permafrost. Here we show modeling of the permafrost evolution from the Late Pleistocene to present time at the ...

Quantifying marine methane fluxes of free gas (bubbles) from the seafloor into the water column is of importance for climate related studies, for example, in the Arctic, reliable methodologies are also of interest for studying man-made gas and oil leakage systems at hydrocarbon production sites. Hydroacoustic surveys with singlebeam and nowadays also multibeam systems have been proven to be a ...

The potential impact of future climate change on methane release from oceanic gas hydrates is the subject of much debate. We analyzed World Ocean Database quality controlled data on the Norwegian‐Svalbard continental margin from the past 60 years to evaluate the potential effect of ocean temperature variations on continental margin gas hydrate reservoirs. Bottom water temperatures in the Norwegian‐Svalbard ...

<p>The carbon cycle of the Arctic Ocean is tightly regulated by land–atmosphere–cryosphere–ocean interactions. Characterizing these environmental exchanges and feedbacks is critical to facilitate projections of the carbon cycle under changing climate conditions. The environmental drivers of sinking particles including organic carbon (OC) to the deep-sea floor are investigated with four moorings ...