Submarine Accumulations of Methane Hydrates in Adjacences of Marambio Island (Seymour Island), Antarctica and Its Probable Environmental Incident

Abstract

The presence of aliphatic hydrocarbons in sediments at the bottom of the platform and the continental margin of the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and its natural escapes, leads us to infer about the likely effects they may have on the Antarctic environment, particularly on changes off average in surface temperatures and seawater. Methane leaks recorded in shallow waters of the region are compatible with the destabilization of gas hydrates in the marine substrate and with changes in average surface temperatures and seawater, suggesting a probable environmental impact such as a consequence of this process, based on the hypothesis of the “clathrate rifle”, the scientific theory of Gerry Dickens and James Kennet, which argues that the rise in sea temperature can lead to a sudden release of methane from the clathrate deposits located in the ocean bottoms, as happened in the Eocene.