Editing Storegga Slide (section)

==Possible mechanism==
The triggering mechanism is thought to have been an earthquake that induced a catastrophic expansion of [[methane clathrate]], a solid compound consisting of large amounts of methane suspended within a crystal water structure that forms in deep oceans under extremely high pressure. If removed from a high-pressure, low-temperature environment, one cubic metre of solid methane clathrate expands to 164 cubic metres of gaseous methane.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Scientific American|first=Lisa|last=Margonellis|title=An Inconvenient Ice|publisher=Nature America|date =October 2014|volume=311|number=4|pages=82–89|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1014-82|pmid=25314880|bibcode=2014SciAm.311d..82M}}</ref> If such an expansion occurred, it may have weakened the integrity of the surrounding rock sufficiently to trigger the slide.

A second theory states that over time, streams from melting glaciers had carried trillions of tons of sediment to the edge of the continental shelf, where it accumulated in many layers. In this case, a trigger such as an earthquake could have caused a large area of seafloor to collapse into the deep Norwegian sea, thus carrying the enormous volume of accumulated sediment along with it.<ref>[http://www.pnas.org/content/113/7/1675.full.pdf ''Skimming the surface of underwater landslides'' 2016]</ref>