AG's Scratchin' Post

[Alex G]

Millions of Tons of Methane Bubbling Up from Melting Arctic Seabed
by David Sassoon - Sep 24th, 2008
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080924/millions-tons-methane-bubbling-melting-arctic-seabed

The Independent (UK) reported in an exclusive story today that scientists have discovered "chimneys" of methane -- a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide -- rising from the melting Arctic seabed.

Scientists believe sudden release of stores of methane have in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and mass extinctions.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University in Sweden, one of the leaders of the expedition, described the scale of the methane emissions in an email exchange sent from the Russian research ship Jacob Smirnitskyi.

"We had a hectic finishing of the sampling programme yesterday and this past night," said Dr Gustafsson. "An extensive area of intense methane release was found. At earlier sites we had found elevated levels of dissolved methane. Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface. These 'methane chimneys' were documented on echo sounder and with seismic [instruments]."

Dr. Gustafsson told the paper that at some locations, methane concentrations reached 100 times background levels, covering several tens of thousands of square kilometres, amounting to millions of tons of methane.

The study is being prepared for peer review publication by the American Geophysical Union, and is being overseen by Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who since 1994 has led about 10 expeditions to the region.

The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.

Scientists fear that its release could unleash a giant reaction that feeds on itself: more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

Pop quiz: what's more dangerous, the meltdown of the Arctic, or the meltdown of Wall Street and global credit markets?

Earth to Washington: Read My Bubbles.