Holocene mass wasting on upper non‐Polar continental slopes—due to post‐Glacial ocean warming and hydrate dissociation?

Abstract

Incorporating both late/post‐Glacial bottom‐water warming and eustatic sealevel rise into a MH (methane hydrate) stability model explains why at least some major submarine landslides (e.g., the Storegga Slide, Norwegian margin) may have been triggered by MH dissociation during the early Holocene (rising sealevels), not during the lowest sealevels of the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum, 18–20 ka). In the case of Storegga, failure may have been initiated either below the upper slope or under the shelf (for fresh pore water, especially with admixed ethane). At water depths below ca. 800m, persistent low bottom water temperatures allowed the sealevel rise to thicken the MH stability zone over time, ruling out Holocene initiation of failure. MH release by Holocene mass wasting cannot have initiated deglaciation.