Earth Equity News

Methane Reported Bubbling up from Ocean Floor, Indicating Possible Permafrost Release. Posted by Joseph Romm, ClimateProgress, September 23, 2008. "The UK's Independent reported today some pretty shocking news... 'The first evidence that millions of tons of [methane,] a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists,' [the article read]. 'The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.' Assuming these findings are published in a peer-reviewed publication, as is planned, they should be taken quite seriously for four reasons. First, many fear that a huge methane release is what happened during the Permian-Triassic extinction event and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Masimum. Second, releasing even a small fraction of the sub-sea methane would make a stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at non-catastrophic concentrations all but impossible. Third, as NOAA reported earlier this year, levels of methane rose sharply last year for the first time since 1998 [graph included in post]. Fourth, the findings are apparently based on very new and credible in situ measurements: 'Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane -- sometimes at up to 100 times background levels -- over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf. In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through 'methane chimneys' rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a 'lid' to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age. They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years'… The article notes that the 'preliminary findings of the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008' are 'being prepared for publication by the American Geophysical Union.' Until that happens, it will be difficult to know what to make of all this. You can read what some other scientists say about these preliminary reports here. Stay tuned. The time to act is yesterday."