Earthwaves Earth Sciences Forum - sudden slimate change 600,000 years ago

I'm last author of five on the paper mentioned in this press release:

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/016158/dis...ate-change

There is a typo in the press release: it was not a 45 deg warming. It was be 4 - 5 deg C. There is a dash in the abstract of the paper, so it means 4 to 5 deg C.

I've been working on this project for over a decade, and am using the stratigraphy derived from the cores including the one discussed in the paper to get the timing of faulting and folding. I made an Excel file of the upper edges of the main faults offshore Ventura to Santa Barbara to UCSB to Pt Conception today and will now send it to a few people.

Chris

Interesting results, Chris.

Am I understanding correctly that a small warming (of unknown cause?) lead to the hydrates destabilizing, releasing the methane, which then lead to a much larger warming?

Brian

We missed You Brian! A talented guy like you should be doing better. Yes, you understand it correctly. I talked to Kennett a couple of years ago and he was really concerned about methane bubbling from the sea floor north of probably Siberia. One of the hypotheses for the late Paleocene thermal maximum is methane: I could Google it, but may be 55 or 50 million years ago.

Methane is in solid form under pressure and cold temperatures. In Santa Barbara Channel, today, it is stable below about 400 meters water depth. If the water at that depth warms, even a little bit, some of the frozen methane goes to gas. One other thing that may happen is that the stability of sloping sea floor drops and you can have massive submarine landslides.

Chris

(12-05-2015, 11:34 AM)Island Chris Wrote: [ -> ]We missed You Brian! A talented guy like you should be doing better. Yes, you understand it correctly. I talked to Kennett a couple of years ago and he was really concerned about methane bubbling from the sea floor north of probably Siberia. One of the hypotheses for the late Paleocene thermal maximum is methane: I could Google it, but may be 55 or 50 million years ago.

Methane is in solid form under pressure and cold temperatures. In Santa Barbara Channel, today, it is stable below about 400 meters water depth. If the water at that depth warms, even a little bit, some of the frozen methane goes to gas. One other thing that may happen is that the stability of sloping sea floor drops and you can have massive submarine landslides.

Chris

Generating tsunamis?

Bad news for Asia.

Roger

(12-05-2015, 11:34 AM)Island Chris Wrote: [ -> ]We missed You Brian! A talented guy like you should be doing better.

Yes, I should. But talent and smarts are not always enough. Seems one also needs the skills of deception and dishonesty. I'm not so good at that. And it's not a skill I wish to acquire.

Brian

(12-05-2015, 02:16 PM)Roger Hunter Wrote: [ -> ]Generating tsunamis?

Bad news for Asia.

Roger

The tsunami would be local, affecting the immediate coast more than anything.

Quakes on particular faults around here may cause them. There is evidence of them having happened in the past.

There is evidence of them on Google maps, offshore of Goleta - https://www.google.com/maps/@34.3584586,...a=!3m1!1e3

Brian

Skywise