The 3000 km3 Storegga submarine landslide occurred c. 8150 years ago from an area rich in gas hydrates off the western coast of Norway. A synchronous increase of 80—100 ppb in atmospheric methane concentrations is recorded in the Greenland GRIP ice core. This increase is hypothesized to reflect methane releases from the Storegga slide debris at an estimated rate of 20—25 Tg/yr for several hundred years following the slide. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and methane release from the Storegga submarine landslide may have contributed to the rapid termination of the brief but intense 8200 yr cold event and the subsequent evolution of Holocene climate.
Alley, R.B. and Ágústsdóttir, A.M.2005: The 8k event: cause and consequences of a major Holocene abrupt climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews24, 1123—49.
2.
Alley, R.B., Mayewski, P.A., Sowers, T., Stuiver, M., Taylor, K.C. and Clark, P.U.1997: Holocene climatic instability: a prominent, widespread event 8200 years ago. Geology25, 483—86.
3.
Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F. and Fairchild, I.J.2002: Structure of the 8200-yr cold event revealed by a speleothem trace element record. Science296, 2203—206.
4.
Begét, J.E.1981: Early Holocene glacial advance in the North Cascade Range, Washington. Geology9, 409—13.
5.
Berndt, C., Meinert, J., Vanneste, M., Buenz, S. and Bryn, P.2002: Submarine slope failure off Norway triggers rapid gas hydrate decomposition. Proceedings Fourth International Conference on Gas Hydrates (ICGH-4), Yokohama, Japan, 19—23 May 2002, 71—74.
6.
Blunier, T., Chappellaz, J., Schwander, J., Stauffer, J. and Raynaud, D.1995: Variations in atmospheric methane concentration during the Holocene epoch. Nature374, 46—49.
7.
Bondevik, S., Svendsen, J.I., Johnsen, G., Mangerud, J. and Kaland, P.E.1997: The Storegga tsunami along the Norwegian coast, its age and runup. Boreas26, 29—53.
8.
Bondevik, S., Svendsen, J.I. and Mangerud, J.1998: Distinction between the Storegga tsunami and the Holocene marine transgression in coastal basin deposits of western Norway. Journal of Quaternary Science13, 529—37.
9.
Bondevik, S., Mangerud, J., Dawson, S., Dawson, A. and Lohne, O.2003: Record breaking height for 8000-yr old tsunami in the North Atlantic. Eos84, 289—293.
10.
Bourgeois, J.C., Koerner, R.M., Gajewski, K. and Fisher, D.A.2000: A Holocene ice-core pollen record from Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. Quaternary Research54, 275—83.
11.
Bouriak, S., Vanneste, M. and Saoutkine, A.2000: Inferred gas hydrates and clay diapers near the Storegga Slide on the southern edge of the Voring Plateau, offshore Norway. Marine Geology163, 125—48.
12.
Brook, E.J., Sowers, T. and Orchado, J.1996: Rapid variations in atmospheric methane concentration during the past 110,000 years. Science273, 1087—91.
13.
Brook, E.J., Harder, S., Severinghaus, J., Steig, E.J. and Sucher, C.M.2000: On the origin and timing of rapid changes in atmopsheric methane during the last glacial period. Global Biogeochemical Cycles14, 559—72.
14.
Buenz, S., Mienert, J. and Berndt, C.2003: Geological controls on the Storegga Gas hydrate system of the mid-Norwegian continental margin. Earth and Planetary Science Letters209, 291—307.
15.
Bugge, T., Belderson, R.H. and Kenyon, N.H.1988: The Storegga slide. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, LondonA325, 357—88.
16.
Cess, R.D., Ramanathan, V., Harrison, E.F., Minnis, P., Barkstrom, B.R., Ahmad, E. and Hartmann, D.H.1989: Cloud-radiative forcing and climate: insights from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment. Science243, 57—63.
17.
Chappellaz, J., Barnola, J.M., Raynaud, D., Krotkievich, Y.S. and Lorius, C.1990: Ice-core record of atmospheric methane over the past 160,000 years. Nature345, 127—31.
18.
Chappellaz, J., Blunier, T., Kints, S., Dallenbach, A., Barnola, J-M., Schwander, J., Raynaud, D. and Stauffer, B.1997: Changes in the atmospheric CH4 gradient between Greenland and Antarctica during the Holocene. Journal Geophysical Research102, 15 987—99.
19.
Dawson, A.G., Long, D. and Smith, D.E.1988: The Storegga Slides: evidence from eastern Scotland for a possible tsunami. Marine Geology82, 271—76.
20.
Dawson, A.G., Long, D., Smith, D.E., Shi, S. and Foster, I.D.L.1993: Tsunamis in the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea caused by the Storegga submarine landslides. In T inti, S., editor, Tsunamis in the world. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 31—42.
21.
Dentener, F., Stevenson, D., Cofala, J., Mechler, R., Amann, M., Bergamaschi, P., Raes, F. and Derwent, R.2005: The impact of air pollutant and methane emission controls on tropospheric ozone and radiative forcing: CTM calculations for the period 1990—2030. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics5, 1731—55.
22.
Dickinson, R.E. and Cicerone, R.J.1986: Future global warming from atmospheric trace gases. Nature319, 109—15.
23.
Fisher, D., Dyke, A., Koerner, R., Bourgeois, J., Kinnard, C., Zdanowicz, C., de Vernal, A., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Savelle, J. and Rochon, A.2006: Natural variability of Arctic sea ice over the Holocene . Eos87, 273—75.
24.
Haflidason, H.B., Torgersen, B., Lie, H. and Sulebak, J.R.2002: Morphological analyses of the seafloor in the Storegga Slide area based on the TOBI and the bathymetrical data sets available. Final Report to Norsk Hydro AS 100—03/02. Department of Geology, University of Bergen.
25.
Harbitz, C.B.1992: Model simulation of tsunamis generated by the Storegga slides. Marine Geology105, 1—21.
26.
Hu, F.S., Slawinski, D., Wright, H.E., Jr, Ito, E., Johnson, R.G., Kelts, K.R., McEwan, R.F. and Boedigheimer, A.1999: Abrupt changes in American climate during earlyHolocene times. Nature400, 437—40.
27.
Kennett, J., Cannariato, K.G., Hendy, I.L. and Behl, R.J.2003: The clathrate gun hypothesis. American Geophysical Union, 216 pp.
28.
Klitgaard-Kristensen, D., Sejrup, H.P., Haflidason, H., Johnsen, S. and Spurk, M.1998: A regional 8200 cal. yr. BP cooling event in northwest Europe, induced by final stages of the Laurentide ice-sheet deglaciation? Journal of Quaternary Science13, 165—69.
29.
Lashof, D.A. and Ahuja, D.R.1990: Relative contributions of greenhouse gas emissions to global warming. Nature344, 529—31.
30.
Leifer, I., Luyendyk, B.P., Boles, J. and Clark, J.F.2006: Natural marine seepage blowout: contribution to atmospheric methane. Global Biogeochemical Cycles20, GB300810.1029/2005GB002668.
31.
Long, D., Smith, D.E. and Dawson, A.G.1989: A Holocene tsunami deposit in eastern Scotland. Journal ofQuaternary Science4, 61—66.
32.
Maslin, M., Owen, M., Day, S. and Long, D.2004: Linking continental-slope failures and climate change: testing the clathrate gun hypothesis. Geology32, 53—56.
33.
Mienert, J. and Posewang, J.1999: Evidence of shallow- and deep-water gas hydrate destabilization in North Atlantic polar continental margin sediments. Geologic Marine Letters19, 143—49.
34.
Ramanathan, V.1988a: The greenhouse theory of climate change: a test by an inadvertent global experiment. Science240, 293—99.
35.
—— 1988b: The radiative and climatic consequences of the changing atmospheric composition of trace gases. In Rowland, F.S. and Isaksen, I.S.A., editors, The changing atmosphere. John Wiley and Sons, 159—86.
36.
Rodhe, H.1990: A comparison of the contribution of various gases to the greenhouse effect. Science248, 1217—19.
Ruddiman, W.F. and Raymo, M.E.2003: A methane-based time scale for Vostok ice: climatic implications , Quaternary Science Reviews22, 141.
39.
Ruddiman, W.F. and Thomson, J.S.2001: The case for human causes of increased atmospheric CH4 over the last 5000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews20, 1769.
40.
Von Grafenstein, U., Erlenkeuser, H., Muller, J., Jouzel, J. and Johnson, S.1998: The cold event 8200 years ago documented in oxygen isotope records of precipitation in Europe and Greenland. Climate Dynamics14, 73—81.
41.
von Grafenstein, U., Erlenkeuser, H., Brauer, A., Jouzel, J. and Johnsen, S.J.1999: Amid-European decadal isotope-climate record from 15,500 to 5000 years BP. Science284, 1654—57.
