A Persistent Oxygen Anomaly Reveals the Fate of Spilled Methane in the Deep Gulf of Mexico

@article{Kessler2011APO,
  title={A Persistent Oxygen Anomaly Reveals the Fate of Spilled Methane in the Deep Gulf of Mexico},
  author={John D. Kessler and David L. Valentine and Molly C Redmond and Mengran Du and Eric W. Chan and Stephanie D. Mendes and Erik W. Quiroz and Christie J Villanueva and S. S. Shusta and Lindsay M Werra and Shari Yvon-Lewis and Thomas C. Weber},
  journal={Science},
  year={2011},
  volume={331},
  pages={312 - 315}
}
Methane released during the Deepwater Horizon blowout was degraded by methanotrophic bacteria. Methane was the most abundant hydrocarbon released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond relevancy to this anthropogenic event, this methane release simulates a rapid and relatively short-term natural release from hydrates into deep water. Based on methane and oxygen distributions measured at 207 stations throughout the affected region, we find that within ~120 days… 
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    Environmental science & technology
  • 2012
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Comment on “A Persistent Oxygen Anomaly Reveals the Fate of Spilled Methane in the Deep Gulf of Mexico”
TLDR
The evidence explicitly linking observed oxygen anomalies to methane consumption ambiguous and extension of these observations to hydrate-derived methane climate forcing premature is found.
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This work investigates microbial communities in gas hydrate-bearing seafloor mounds at Storfjordrenna, offshore Svalbard in the high Arctic, where distinct methane concentration profiles are identified that include steady-state, recently-increasing subsurface diffusive flux, and active gas seepage.
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