Vestiges Of Ice Age Conditions In The Black Sea

[EnolaGaia]

Much attention has been given to warming conditions and their effects on Arctic permafrost regions and the Antarctic in general - especially in relation to trapped methane deposits that might be liberated if / when warming progresses.

Newly reported research results describe the discovery of a previously unknown similar situation outside the circumpolar regions - an area of deep sediments beneath the Black Sea that have not yet begun responding to the end of the last glacial maximum (Ice Age).

We've Found Deep Parts of The Sea Where The Last Ice Age Never Actually Ended

Some of the deepest parts of the Black Sea are still responding to climate changes prompted by the last ice age, scientists have discovered – a period which officially ended almost 12,000 years ago.

An analysis of gas hydrate deposits – in this case methane trapped by water molecules, in a solid substance that looks like ice – has revealed the lagging response in a northwestern area of the Black Sea known as the Danube fan.

Together with temperature measurements and other data, the drill cores of the gas hydrate deposits reveal something rather surprising: Levels of free methane gas under the seafloor have not yet adapted to the warmer conditions that have already prevailed on the surface for thousands of years.

"This shows that the gas hydrate system in the Danube deep sea fan is still responding to climate changes initiated at the end of the last glacial maximum," write the researchers in their paper. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/in-the-deepest-parts-of-the-black-sea-the-last-ice-age-never-ended

NOTE: The by-line for this story shows a date of April 1, but I don't have any reason to suspect it's an April Fools' joke.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for the published research report ...

Michael Riedel, Tim Freudenthal, Jörg Bialas, Cord Papenberg, Matthias Haeckel, Markus Bergenthal, Thomas Pape, Gerhard Bohrmann
In-situ borehole temperature measurements confirm dynamics of the gas hydrate stability zone at the upper Danube deep sea fan, Black Sea
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 563, 2021, 116869, ISSN 0012-821X,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2021.116869.

Abstract
Coring, geophysical logging, and in-situ temperature measurements were performed with the MARUM-MeBo200 seafloor rig to characterize gas hydrate occurrences in sediments of the Danube deep sea fan, off Romania, Black Sea. The new drilling data showed no evidence for significant gas hydrate saturations within the sediments but the presence of free gas at the depth of the bottom-simulating reflector (BSR). In-situ temperature and core-derived geochemical data suggest that the current base of the gas hydrate stability zone (BGHSZ) is ∼20 m shallower than the BSR. Investigation of the seismic data around the drill sites shows several locations where free gas previously trapped at a former BGHSZ migrated upwards forming a new reflection above the BSR. This shows that the gas hydrate system in the Danube deep sea fan is still responding to climate changes initiated at the end of the last glacial maximum.

SOURCE: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X2100128X

 

[Kondoru]

Ok, are they looking for Methane Hydrate?

 

[EnolaGaia]

They knew where methane hydrate was to be found. The objective of the research was to determine why gaseous methane wasn't evident in some sediment areas where it was expected to have been escaping from hydrate. It turns out the methane was still locked down in hydrate as if the last ice age hadn't ended (i.e., as if the temperatures hadn't risen for the last few thousand years).

 

[Kondoru]

Ah, I dont understand geology much, I just saw the terms `methane` and `hydrate`

I know about Burning ice.