CentralNotice Clathrate gun hypothesis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Methane clathrate is released as gas into the surrounding water column or soils when ambient temperature increases The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that rises in sea temperatures (and/or falls in sea level) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and permafrost which, because the methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas , leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization – in effect initiating a runaway process as irreversible, once started, as the firing of a gun. [ 1 ] In its original form, the hypothesis proposed that the "clathrate gun" could cause abrupt runaway warming on a timescale less than a human lifetime, [ 1 ] and was respons...