Gas hydrate pingo

A gas hydrate pingo is a submarine dome structure formed by the accumulation of gas hydrates under the seafloor. Gas hydrate pingos resemble the pingo landforms found on land in periglacial regions.[1]

Gas hydrate pingos may accumulate non-hydrate gas under pressure leading to explosions that forms craters. Crater depressions of this type have been found on the seafloor of Barents Sea. A trigger for the explosions may be drop in pressure as result of lowering of the sea level.[2]

A study in the Norwegian Sea found that gas hydrate pingos were covered by bacterial mats and by Polychaete tubeworms that are associated with methane.[3]

References
  1. Serov, Pavel; Vadakkepuliyambatta, Sunil; Mienert, Jürgen; Patton, Henry; Portnov, Alexey; Silyakova, Anna; Panieri, Guiliana; Carroll, Michael L.; Carrol, JoLyn; Andreassen, Karin; Hubbard, Alun (2017). "Postglacial response of Arctic Ocean gas hydrates to climatic amelioration". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114 (25): 6215–6220. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114.6215S. doi:10.1073/pnas.1619288114. PMC 5474808. PMID 28584081.
  2. Setså, Ronny (2018). "Forventer utblåsning". geoforskning.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  3. Hovland, Martin; Svensen, Henrik (2006). "Submarine pingoes: Indicators of shallow gas hydrates in a pockmark at Nyegga, Norwegian Sea". Marine Geology. 228 (1–4): 15–23. Bibcode:2006MGeol.228...15H. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2005.12.005.


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