st mid-ocean ridges, into sediment drifts that cover the ridges. Using a seismic data acquisition system, they found a methane hydrate system within those sediments.
The discovery surprised the researchers. “We didn’t know whether or not abiotic methane could supply gas hydrate systems so close to mid-ocean ridges” Johnson says. “It had been thought that mid-ocean ridge environments might be too hot for gas hydrates to be stable.”
Indeed, those methane hydrates are remarkably stable: The researchers showed that the hydrate system is long-lived, about two million years old. Further, because the hydrates exist under very deep water — more than 1500 meters — the methane is less vulnerable to potential release due to changing sea levels or ocean warming. Such stability has important implications for climate change; as a greenhouse gas, methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
“This work shows there are parts of the Arctic where abiotic methane is coming up to the seafloor and instead of coming out, it is trapped in gas hydrates; it’s finding itself in a stable environment for millions of years,” says Johnson. Where climate change is concerned, he adds, “this is not the part of the gas hydrate system that is most susceptible to change in a warming Arctic Ocean.”
Although his focus is on the crust of the Earth, not interplanetary space, Johnson notes that these findings are interesting, as some researchers have suggested abiotic methane formed by serpentinization may exist and reside as gas hydrates on Mars. And as gas hydrates gain popularity as potential fuel for the future here on Earth, the energy sector is likely to take notice as well. “This is a new source of methane for gas hydrates in the Arctic that could be quite extensive,” Johnson says.
The study is available online here. Co-authors on the study are Jürgen Mienert, Andreia Plaza-Faverola, Sunil Vadakkepuliyambatta, Jochen Knies, Stefan Bünz, Karin Andreassen and Bénédicte Ferré, all of CAGE. The research was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme (project number 223259). Additional sabbatical support for Johnson was provided by UNH and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state’s flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.