Biotic gas generation from the degradation of organic carbon in marine sediments supplies and maintains gas hydrates throughout the world’s oceans. In nascent, ultraslow-spreading ocean basins, methane generation can also be abiotic, occurring during the high-temperature (>200 °C) serpentinization of ultramafic rocks. Here, we report on the evolution of a growing Arctic gas- and gas hydrate–charged ...

Large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are released from the seabed to the water column, where it may be consumed by aerobic methanotrophic bacteria. The size and activity of methanotrophic communities, which determine the amount of methane consumed in the water column, are thought to be mainly controlled by nutrient and redox dynamics. Here, we report repeated measurements of methanotrophic ...

Benthic and planktonic foraminifera, stable isotopes and other geochemical and sedimentological parameters have been investigated in a sediment core from Vestnesa Ridge (79°N, NW Svalbard margin, 1300 m water depth) in order to reconstruct the palaeoceanographic and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the eastern Fram Strait during the last 14,000 years. Our multiproxy data and, in particular, our ...

<p>Detrital zircon provenance study of a metamorphosed sedimentary succession in the eastern part of the Kaoko Belt in Namibia has revealed two distinct sources for the Neoproterozoic sedimentation along the southwestern Congo Craton margin. The lower part of the succession shows detrital zircon ages consistent with erosion of Paleoproterozoic basement of the Congo Craton with an inferred Mesoproterozoic ...

Semi-quantitative estimates of early to late Holocene spring sea ice concentration (SpSIC) andoccurrence of summer sea ice for the northern Barents Sea have been obtained by analysing the biomarkers IP₂₅,brassicasterol and a tri-unsaturated highly branched isoprenoid lipid in a Holocene marine sediment core.Sub-surface water mass variations were derived from planktic foraminiferal assemblages ...

The continental margin off Prins Karls Forland, western Svalbard, is characterized by widespread natural gas seepage into the water column at and upslope of the gas hydrate stability zone. We deployed an ocean bottom seismometer integrated into the MASOX (Monitoring Arctic Seafloor-Ocean Exchange) automated seabed observatory at the pinch-out of this zone at 389 m water depth to investigate passive ...

We investigated methane-derived authigenic carbonate (MDAC) crusts and nodules from a cold seep site on the northern Norwegian continental shelf in ca. 220 m water depth to determine the timing and mode of their formation. Gas bubbling observed during remotely operated vehicle (ROV)-assisted sampling of MDAC crusts revealed ongoing seep activity. Authigenic carbonates were present as crusts on the ...

Formation of deep water in the high‐latitude North Atlantic is important for the global meridional ocean circulation, and its variability in the past may have played an important role in regional and global climate change. Here we study ocean circulation associated with the last (de)glacial period, using water‐column radiocarbon age reconstructions in the Faroe‐Shetland Channel, southeastern Norwegian ...

Three gravity cores were collected from an unexplored site in the northern flank of the Olga Basin, Barents Sea. The lack of data from the central Barents Sea prompted this investigation and led to defining the evolution of the environment and ice sheet transitions over the Holocene. The three cores underwent benthic foraminiferal studies in combination with stable isotope analysis of (δ18O and δ ...