The Hydrate extinction event 8000 years ago…. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about.
Hydrates form from carbon gases (like Methane and CO2) coming in contact with water under high pressure and low temperatures (like at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico). Formation of hydates is why the oceans of the world are a CO2 “sink” and absorb a huge amount of the carbon dioxide from natural and man-made sources.
Hydrates are very dangerous – especially if they are close to the surface. When they are heated or the pressure is removed, they revert to the gas and water – at 164 times their original size. If buried hydrates are suddenly explosed to warm water or no pressure, they will explode in something very unimaginable. It is believed that happened 8000 years ago in northern Europe, when an earthquake caused an underwater landslide, exposing hydate deposits which then were violently released. If the hydrates are methane, they’ll explode. If they’re CO2, all oxygen breathing creatures for 100s of miles would die..
Increases in ocean temperature precede increases in CO2 levels. Is the relationship clearer now?
