Figure 7: Model results of heat propagation with different warming trends.

We simulate the heat propagation from bottom seawater into the sediments with a fast (a–e) and a slow (f–j) bottom seawater warming cases. We assumed a 1-degree warming over the course of 30 years for the fast warming case (a–e) and a 1.5-degree warming in 300 years for the slow warming case (f–j). Four snapshots of sub-bottom temperature were shown for each case (b–e) with the time marked on (a) as red dots). Our assumed fast warming trend is apparently higher than the historic temperature record especially for summer seasons after ca. 1965. Refer to the main text for the inferences of these model results.