Although submarine methane hydrates or clathrates have been highlighted as potential amplifiers of modern global climate change and associated glacio-eustatic sea-level rise, their potential role in sea-level fall has not been appreciated Recent estimates of the total volume occupied by gas hydrates in marine sediments vary 20-fold, from 1.2 ?? 1014 to 2.4 ?? 1015 m3. Using a specific volume change on melting of-21%, dissociation of the current global inventory of hydrate would result in a decrease of submarine hydrate volume of 2.4 ?? 1013 to 5.0??1014 m3. Release of free gas bubbles present beneath hydrates would increase these volumes by 1.1-2.0 ?? 1013 m3. The combined effects of hydrate melting and subhydrate gas release would result conservatively in a global sea-level fall of 10-146 cm. Such a mechanism may offset some future sea-level rise associated with thermal expansion of the oceans. It could also explain anomalous sea-level drops during ice-free periods such as the early Eocene, the Cretaceous, and the Devonian.
Additional publication details
Clathrate eustasy: Methane hydrate melting as a mechanism for geologically rapid sea-level fall