Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 29 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5488, pp. 2332 - 2335
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5488.2332
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Dating of Pore Waters with 129I: Relevance for the Origin of Marine Gas Hydrates

Udo Fehn,1* Glen Snyder,1 Per K. Egeberg2

Pore waters associated with gas hydrates at Blake Ridge in the Atlantic Ocean were dated by measuring their iodine-129/iodine ratios. Samples collected from sediments with ages between 1.8 and 6 million years ago consistently yield ages around 55 million years ago. These ages, together with the strong iodine enrichment observed in the pore waters, suggest that the origin of iodine is related to organic material of early Tertiary age, which probably is also the source of the methane in the gas hydrates at this location.

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
2 Department of Chemistry, Agder College, Tordenskjoldgate 65, 4604 Kristiansand, Norway.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fehn{at}earth.rochester.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Age variation of pore water iodine in the eastern Nankai Trough, Japan: Evidence for different methane sources in a large gas hydrate field.
H. Tomaru, Z. Lu, U. Fehn, Y. Muramatsu, and R. Matsumoto (2007)
Geology 35, 1015-1018
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Iodine dating of pore waters associated with gas hydrates in the Nankai area, Japan.
U. Fehn, G. T. Snyder, R. Matsumoto, Y. Muramatsu, and H. Tomaru (2003)
Geology 31, 521-524
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Microbial Communities from Methane Hydrate-Bearing Deep Marine Sediments in a Forearc Basin.
D. W. Reed, Y. Fujita, M. E. Delwiche, D. B. Blackwelder, P. P. Sheridan, T. Uchida, and F. S. Colwell (2002)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 68, 3759-3770
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Iodine-129 constraints on residence times of deep marine brines in the Canadian Shield.
D. J. Bottomley, R. Renaud, T. Kotzer, and I. D. Clark (2002)
Geology 30, 587-590
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)