Open AccessRecent estimations suggest that vast amounts of methane are locked in the Arctic Ocean bottom sediments in various forms of gashydrates. A potential feedback froma continued warming of the Arctic region is therefore the release ofmethane to the atmosphere.This study addresses the relationship between a warming of the Arctic ocean and gas hydrate stability.We apply a theoretical modelthat estimates the base of the gas hydrate stability zone in the Arctic Ocean considering different bottom water warming and sealevel scenarios.We model the present day conditions adopting two different geothermal gradient values: 30 and 40∘C/km. For eachgeothermal gradient value, we simulate a rise and a decrease in seafloor temperature equal to 2∘C and in sea level equal to 10m.Theresults show that shallow gas hydrates present in water depths less than 500mwould be strongly affected by a future rise in seafloortemperature potentially resulting in large amounts of gas released to the water column due to their dissociation. We estimate thatthe area, where there could be complete gas hydrate dissociation, is about 4% of the area where there are the conditions for gashydrates stability.
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