Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Climate Change Forum Methane Climate Bomb

23Sept'08
Three separate groups of scientists have seen large plumes of bubbling Methane rising up from the Artic Seas.
Research ships from Russia, Sweden, and Britain have all correlated these findings. They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of even more methane.
Areas were found in the Sea 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]."
At some locations, Methane concentrations reached 100 times background levels.
These anomalies have been seen in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, covering several tens of thousands of square kilometres, amounting to millions of tons of Methane, said Dr Gustafsson.

Although Methane may have been rising from the seabed in the Svarlbard area for thousands of years. It is very likely that as the Artic Sea ice melts, more and more Methane is being released, that would have a very serious effect on global warming.
Researchers on board the British research ship the 'James Clark Ross' said they had counted about 250 methane plumes bubbling from the seabed in an area of about 30 square miles in water less than 400 metres (1,300 feet) deep off the west coast of Svalbard.
They have also discovered a set of deeper plumes at depths of about 1,200 metres at a second site near by.
Professor Westbrook said after disembarking from the ship, which arrived back in Britain yesterday. "Now we know it's there, now we will have to very seriously consider its effect."

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html

***Thoughts
Physical disturbance of the sea bed when the Artic oil rigs arrive...will exacerbate the problem.

...to say the least. Just the exploration, soundings, and test wells could cause....
I wonder if an exploratory ship would sink if it were above a sudden release of methane bubbles.
...oh well. no pun intended....
===

Hey! Deje vu....

Thanks Mike for picking this up and making it into the full-fledged topic that it should be.

My mention of this new development was also lacking the better source that you provided.
http://www.scienceagogo.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=27866#Post27866

I was only worried about ice returning and wiping out the rigs, but your worries are better, I think.

Cheers!
~

It might be that the depresurization of the mass under greenland is now reaching further out from its center , and causing a proportional temperature decrease due to the pressure decrease from the underside of the earths crust , the same amount of pressure is pressing downwards on the clathrate but the supportive magma's pressure has decreased allowing a temperature increase of deep concentrations of the methane ice as the magma expands melting the solid rock and as the heat moves up the
methane ice warms.

there are only two ways that methane ice will release methane , one is pressure and the other is temperature.

they will find more and more of these plumes as the ice melts atop greenland depressurizing the earths supportive magma.

lets hope that it will not be too sudden , I for one am glad to see that it is releasing slowly.

it might be a good idea to clear the area of any traffic and torch it , if the concentrations get high enought.

then if need be set some type of floating barges or something out there to monitor the concentrations and ignight the methane when ever possible , otherwise we will see even more global warming which will lead to massive methane releases and ignition
of these releases from lightning or other sources , that could devastate large populations and/or cause a domino effect bringing about worldwide devastation.

I dont think that burning the methane would be as harmfull as allowing it to build up in the atmosphere.

it wouldnt be nice to wake up to find that the 21% oxygen in our atmosphere had reduced to 5% overnight , but it could happen.

.