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The Holocene, Vol. 17, No. 3, 291-295 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683607076435

Methane gas release from the Storegga submarine landslide linked to earlyHolocene climate change: a speculative hypothesis

James E. Beget

(Geophysical Institute and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Fairbanks AK 99775-5780, USA, ffjeb1{at}uaf.edu

Jason A. Addison

(Geophysical Institute and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Fairbanks AK 99775-5780, USA

The 3000 km3 Storegga submarine landslide occurred c. 8150 years ago from an area rich in gas hydrates off the western coast of Norway. A synchronous increase of 80—100 ppb in atmospheric methane concentrations is recorded in the Greenland GRIP ice core. This increase is hypothesized to reflect methane releases from the Storegga slide debris at an estimated rate of 20—25 Tg/yr for several hundred years following the slide. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and methane release from the Storegga submarine landslide may have contributed to the rapid termination of the brief but intense 8200 yr cold event and the subsequent evolution of Holocene climate.

Key Words: Storegga landslide • Holocene • climate change • gas hydrates • methane • tropospheric ozone • greenhouse warming • 8200 yr event.


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