Timing and origin of natural gas accumulation in the Siljan impact structure, Sweden

Henrik Drake (), Nick M. W. Roberts, Christine Heim, Martin J. Whitehouse, Sandra Siljeström, Ellen Kooijman, Curt Broman, Magnus Ivarsson and Mats E. Åström
Additional contact information
Henrik Drake: Department of Biology and Environmental Science
Nick M. W. Roberts: British Geological Survey
Christine Heim: Geoscience Centre Göttingen of the Georg-August University
Martin J. Whitehouse: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Sandra Siljeström: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Ellen Kooijman: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Curt Broman: Stockholm University
Magnus Ivarsson: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Mats E. Åström: Department of Biology and Environmental Science

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Fractured rocks of impact craters may be suitable hosts for deep microbial communities on Earth and potentially other terrestrial planets, yet direct evidence remains elusive. Here, we present a study of the largest crater of Europe, the Devonian Siljan structure, showing that impact structures can be important unexplored hosts for long-term deep microbial activity. Secondary carbonate minerals dated to 80 ± 5 to 22 ± 3 million years, and thus postdating the impact by more than 300 million years, have isotopic signatures revealing both microbial methanogenesis and anaerobic oxidation of methane in the bedrock. Hydrocarbons mobilized from matured shale source rocks were utilized by subsurface microorganisms, leading to accumulation of microbial methane mixed with a thermogenic and possibly a minor abiotic gas fraction beneath a sedimentary cap rock at the crater rim. These new insights into crater hosted gas accumulation and microbial activity have implications for understanding the astrobiological consequences of impacts.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12728-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12728-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12728-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().