The last ice age ended 12,000 years ago, except for a mysterious region recently found in the Black Sea.
According to research just published on Earth and Planetary Science Letters, an analysis of gas hydrate deposits here is methane trapped in water molecules, hidden in an ice-like solid – in the “Danube fan” region, the fan-shaped sedimentary region in the northwest of the Black Sea, mainly mainly deposited by the Danube, has revealed that the ice age here never really ended.
Black Sea – Photo: NASA
The team of authors led by Dr. Michael Riedel from the Center for Ocean Research GEOMAR Helmholtz (Germany) searched for the basis of the “gas hydrate stable zone” (GHSZ), which meets the conditions of temperature, pressure and a Several other conditions allow gas hydrate to form naturally. Above and below this “stable region”, the methane will be in a free state, not trapped in the hydrate.
The GHSZ is not limited by fixed numbers but will change with planetary changes. By drilling into the seabed and measuring temperatures, the researchers concluded that the GHSZ region of most places on Earth has adapted to warmer conditions over the past several millennia and is clearly changing.
But in the enigmatic part of the Black Sea, the adaptive response is completely delayed. The GHSZ here is similar to the GHSZ on the surface at the time of the last ice age. This deep system seems to have only just realized the end of the ice age and is struggling to cope.
Follow Science Alert, This finding will help future climate modeling. Science has shown that there are huge deposits of gas hydrate beneath the Arctic, and how they respond to a rise in global temperatures in the coming years will have a pretty big impact on climate.
Source link: Discovered ‘through time’ region right on Earth, still stuck in the ice age
– Emergenceingames.com
