Ocean warming related to climate change has been proposed to cause the dissociation of gas hydrate deposits and methane leakage on the seafloor. This process occurs in places where the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone in sediments meets the overlying warmer oceans in upper slope settings. Here we present new evidence based on the analysis of a large multidisciplinary and multi-scale dataset from such a location in the western South Atlantic, which records massive gas release to the ocean. The results provide a unique opportunity to examine ocean-hydrate interactions over millennial and decadal scales, and the first evidence from the southern hemisphere for the effects of contemporary ocean warming on gas hydrate stability. Widespread hydrate dissociation results in a highly focused advective methane flux that is not fully accessible to anaerobic oxidation, challenging the assumption that it is mostly consumed by sulfate reduction before reaching the seafloor.

Mapping of natural gas hydrate systems has been performed successfully in the past using the controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) method. This method relies on differentiating resistive highly saturated free gas or hydrate-bearing host sediment from a less resistive low-saturated gas or brine-bearing host sediments. Knowledge of the lateral extent and resistivity variations (and hence the saturation variations) within sediments that host hydrates is crucial to be able to accurately quantify the presence of saturated gas hydrates. A 3D CSEM survey (PUCRS14) was acquired in 2014 in the Pelotas Basin offshore Brazil, with hydrate resistivity mapping as the main objective. The survey was acquired within the context of the CONEGAS research project, which investigated the origin and distribution of gas hydrate deposits in the Pelotas Basin. We have inverted the acquired data using a proprietary 3D CSEM anisotropic inversion algorithm. Inversion was purely CSEM data driven, and we did not include any a priori information in the process. Prior to CSEM, interpretation of near-surface geophysical data including 2D seismic, sub-bottom profiler, and multibeam bathymetry data indicated possible presence of gas hydrates within features identified such as faults, chimneys, and seeps leading to pockmarks, along the bottom simulating reflector and within the gas hydrate stability zone. Upon integration of the same with CSEM-derived resistivity volume, the interpretation revealed excellent spatial correlation with many of these features. The interpretation further revealed new features with possible hydrate presence, which were previously overlooked due to a lack of a clear seismic and/or multibeam backscatter signature. In addition, features that were previously mapped as gas hydrate bearing had to be reinterpreted as residual or low-saturated gas/hydrate features, due to the lack of significant resistivity response associated with them. Furthermore, we used the inverted resistivity volume to derive the saturation volume of the subsurface using Archie’s equation.

Abstract. Assessments of future climate-warming-induced seafloor methane (CH4) release rarely include anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) within the sediments. Considering that more than 90 % of the CH4 produced in ocean sediments today is consumed by AOM, this may result in substantial overestimations of future seafloor CH4 release. Here, we integrate a fully coupled AOM module with a numerical hydrate model to investigate under what conditions rapid release of CH4 can bypass AOM and result in significant fluxes to the ocean and atmosphere. We run a number of different model simulations for different permeabilities and maximum AOM rates. In all simulations, a future climate warming scenario is simulated by imposing a linear seafloor temperature increase of 3 ∘C over the first 100 years. The results presented in this study should be seen as a first step towards understanding AOM dynamics in relation to climate change and hydrate dissociation. Although the model is somewhat poorly constrained, our results indicate that vertical CH4 migration through hydraulic fractures can result in low AOM efficiencies. Fracture flow is the predicted mode of methane transport under warming-induced dissociation of hydrates on upper continental slopes. Therefore, in a future climate warming scenario, AOM might not significantly reduce methane release from marine sediments.

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Carbon dioxide capture, storage, and transport technology based on the formation of gas hydrate is an innovative solution. In this work, the experimental investigations on the formation of CO2 hydrates were carried out with aqueous solutions containing 0.5% by weight of three different organic salts synthesized from l-phenylalanine and different alcohols under isochoric conditions. All of the synthesized compounds were obtained with good yields (74.2–87.7%), and among them, the nonyl l-phenylalanine hydrochloride is an unprecedented compound. In addition, there has not been any study with organic salts aiming to verify their influence as an inhibitor or promoter of CO2 hydrates. The compound pentyl l-phenylalanine hydrochloride showed a successful result in promoting CO2 hydrate since it achieved a shorter induction time (1.74 h), a higher CO2 consumption rate, and better storage capacity (slope of the pressure curve). In addition, dodecyl l-phenylalanine hydrochloride has the characteristic of CO2 hydrate inhibitor, and therefore it was observed that the increase of the side-chain hydrophobicity (carbon chain linked to the oxygen function of the ester function) provides the effect of inhibiting CO2 hydrates.

Due to the declining of oil reserves in the world in the coming decades, gas hydrate (GH) is seen as the great promise to supply the planet’s energy demand. With this, the importance of studying the behavior of GH, several researchers have been developing different systems that allow greater truthfulness in relation to the conditions where GH is found in nature. This work describes a new system to simulate formation (precipitation) and dissociation of GH primarily at natural conditions at deep-sea, lakes, and permafrost, but also applied for artificial gas hydrates studies (pipelines, and transport of hydrocarbons, CO2, and hydrogen). This system is fully automated and unique, allowing the simultaneous work in two independent reactors, built in Hastelloy C-22, with a capacity of 1 L and 10 L, facilitating rapid analyses when compared to higher-volume systems. The system can operate using different mixtures of gases (methane, ethane, propane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ammonia), high pressure (up to 200 bar) with high operating safety, temperature (−30 to 200 °C), pH controllers, stirring system, water and gas samplers, and hyphenated system with gas chromatograph (GC) to analyze the composition of the gases formed in the GH and was projected to possibility the visualizations of experiments (quartz windows).

Seafloor methane emissions can affect Earth’s climate and ocean chemistry. Vast quantities of methane formed by microbial decomposition of organic matter are locked within gas hydrate and free gas on continental slopes, particularly in large areas with high sediment accumulations such as deep-sea fans. The release of methane in slope environments has frequently been associated with dissociation of gas hydrates near the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone on the upper slope, with discharges in greater water depths less understood. Here we show, using data from the Rio Grande Cone (western South Atlantic), that the intrinsic, gravity-induced downslope collapse of thick slope sediment accumulations creates structures that serve as pathways for gas migration, unlocking methane and causing seafloor emissions via giant gas flares in the water column. The observed emissions in the study region (up to 310 Mg year−1) are three times greater than estimates for the entire US North Atlantic margin and reveal the importance of collapsing sediment accumulations for ocean carbon cycling. Similar outgassing systems on the Amazon and Niger fans suggest that gravity tectonics on passive margins is a common yet overlooked mechanism driving massive seafloor methane emissions in sediment-laden continental slopes.