Stable methane hydrate above 2GPa and the source of Titan's atmospheric methane

Details Stable methane hydrate above 2GPa and the source of Titan's atmospheric methane Stable methane hydrate above 2GPa and the source of Titan's atmospheric methane

Apr 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001natur.410..661l&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 410, Issue 6829, pp. 661-663 (2001).

Physics

87

Scientific paper

Methane hydrate is thought to have been the dominant methane-containing phase in the nebula from which Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their major moons formed. It accordingly plays an important role in formation models of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Current understanding assumes that methane hydrate dissociates into ice and free methane in the pressure range 1-2GPa (10-20kbar), consistent with some theoretical and experimental studies. But such pressure-induced dissociation would have led to the early loss of methane from Titan's interior to its atmosphere, where it would rapidly have been destroyed by photochemical processes. This is difficult to reconcile with the observed presence of significant amounts of methane in Titan's present atmosphere. Here we report neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies that determine the thermodynamic behaviour of methane hydrate at pressures up to 10GPa. We find structural transitions at about 1 and 2GPa to new hydrate phases which remain stable to at least 10GPa. This implies that the methane in the primordial core of Titan remained in stable hydrate phases throughout differentiation, eventually forming a layer of methane clathrate approximately 100km thick within the ice mantle. This layer is a plausible source for the continuing replenishment of Titan's atmospheric methane.

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