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Massive dissociation of gas hydrate during a Jurassic oceanic anoxic event

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Hesselbo, Stephen P., Gröcke, Darren R., Jenkyns, Hugh C., Bjerrum, Christian J., Farrimond, Paul, Morgans Bell, Helen S., Green, Owen R.·2000·Nature
DOI 10.1038/35019044
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Abstract

In the Jurassic period, the Early Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (about 183 million years ago) is associated with exceptionally high rates of organic-carbon burial, high palaeotemperatures and significant mass extinction. Heavy carbon-isotope compositions in rocks and fossils of this age have been linked to the global burial of organic carbon, which is isotopically light. In contrast, examples of light carbon-isotope values from marine organic matter of Early Toarcian age have been explained principally in terms of localized upwelling of bottom water enriched in 12C versus 13 C (refs 1,2,5,6). Here, however, we report carbon-isotope analyses of fossil wood which demonstrate that isotopically light carbon dominated all the upper oceanic, biospheric and atmospheric carbon reservoirs, and that this occurred despite the enhanced burial of organic carbon. We propose that—as has been suggested for the Late Palaeocene thermal maximum, some 55 million years ago—the observed patterns were produced by voluminous and extremely rapid release of methane from gas hydrate contained in marine continental-margin sediments.

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Research works printed but not linked: 30

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Metadata

Authors
Hesselbo, S. P., Gröcke, D. R., Jenkyns, H. C., Bjerrum, C. J., Farrimond, P., Morgans Bell, H. S., & Green, O. R.
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2000-07
Volume
406
Issue
6794
Pages
392-395
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/35019044
OpenAlex
W2039311538
Cited by
1,005
References
0
FWCI
40.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Massive dissociation of gas hydrate during a Jurassic oceanic anoxic event. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/35019044
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Hesselbo, S. P., Gröcke, D. R., Jenkyns, H. C., Bjerrum, C. J., Farrimond, P., Morgans Bell, H. S., & Green, O. R. (2000). Massive dissociation of gas hydrate during a Jurassic oceanic anoxic event. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/35019044

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