arctic methane

[Old Rocks]

Arctic Ocean leaking methane at alarming rate, researchers say | Local News | The Seattle Times

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Ounce for ounce, methane has an effect on global warming more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and it’s leaking from the Arctic Ocean at an alarming rate, according to new research by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Their article, which appeared Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, states that the Arctic Ocean is releasing methane at a rate more than twice what scientific models had previously anticipated.

Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov at the university’s International Arctic Research Center have spent more than a decade researching the Arctic’s greenhouse-gas emissions, along with scientists from Russia, Europe and the Lower 48.

Shakhova, the lead author of the most recent report, said the methane release rate likely is even greater than their paper describes.

The news on this front just keeps getting worse. The 'Alarmists' make predictions that seem pretty extreme, then nature proceeds to exceed their predictions.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

PANIC!!!!!!!!

 

[Abraham3]

Never the wisest course of action, but at least it's in the proper direction.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The deniers don't like real field work...Methane is 30 times more powerful then co2.

Doesn't fucking matter too them.

 

[ScienceRocks]

More Arctic Methane Bubbles into Atmosphere

A new study suggests more than twice as much of the potent greenhouse gas is bubbling out of the rapidly warming Arctic Ocean, speeding climate change
Scientists are continually working to improve estimates of just how much methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is being emitted from the Arctic.

A new study led by researcher Natalia Shakhova of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Far Eastern Branch reports that methane releases from one part of the Arctic Ocean are more than twice what scientists previously thought.

Shakhova and her colleagues investigated releases of methane from permafrost underneath a shallow part of the Arctic Ocean called the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which sits in the ocean north of Siberia and east of the Lena River Delta.

Shakhova's research team used sonar to target bubbles of methane rising up from the seafloor. They calculated the amount of methane being released from the bubbles to the atmosphere at 17 teragrams per year, which is close to the amount being released from the Arctic tundra.

"This means that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is at least as significant a source of methane to the atmosphere as Arctic tundra, which is thought to be one [of the] major sources of methane in the Northern Hemisphere," Shakhova said.

Another recent study also pointed to ponds in the Arctic tundra as a possible important source of methane (ClimateWire, Nov. 22).

More Arctic Methane Bubbles into Atmosphere: Scientific American

This is a feed back this is growing...Methane is 23 times more powerful then co2. We can reduce our co2 emissions but if this keeps growing = oh shit.

How does the doubling of arctic methane effect the reductions we have to make to stay below 2c.

Vast quantities of carbon are stored in shallow Arctic reservoirs, such as submarine and terrestrial permafrost. Submarine permafrost on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf started warming in the early Holocene, several thousand years ago. However, the present state of the permafrost in this region is uncertain. Here, we present data on the temperature of submarine permafrost on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf using measurements collected from a sediment core, together with sonar-derived observations of bubble flux and measurements of seawater methane levels taken from the same region. The temperature of the sediment core ranged from −1.8 to 0 °C. Although the surface layer exhibited the lowest temperatures, it was entirely unfrozen, owing to significant concentrations of salt. On the basis of the sonar data, we estimate that bubbles escaping the partially thawed permafrost inject 100–630 mg methane m−2 d−1 into the overlying water column. We further show that water-column methane levels had dropped significantly following the passage of two storms. We suggest that significant quantities of methane are escaping the East Siberian Shelf as a result of the degradation of submarine permafrost over thousands of years. We suggest that bubbles and storms facilitate the flux of this methane to the overlying ocean and atmosphere, respectively.

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n1/full/ngeo2007.html

 

[asterism]

I'd be inclined to believe the claims about Methane but since the same fools are telling us all about how damaging Carbon Dioxide is I'm apt to write off their Methane claims.

Maybe the kooks backed the wrong horse.

Assuming they are right, how is the new UN proposal going to actually fix any of this? That's the second part of the argument that the left can't answer.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Methane Levels going through the Roof
Arctic News: Methane Levels going through the Roof

On November 9, 2013, methane readings well over 2600 ppb were recorded at multiple altitudes, as illustrated by the image below.

On November 9, 2013, p.m., methane readings were recorded as high as 2662 parts per billion (ppb), at 586 millibars (mb) pressure, which corresponds with an altitude of 14384.6 feet or 4384.4 meters.

Where did these high levels occur? Methane levels were low on the southern hemisphere and, while there were some areas with high readings over North America and Asia, there were no areas as wide and bright yellow as over the Arctic Ocean (the color yellow indicating readings of 1950 ppb and higher on above map).

As discussed in a previous post, huge amounts of methane are now escaping from the seabed of the Arctic Ocean, penetrating the sea ice, and entering the atmosphere, in a process that appears to be accelerating, resulting in huge amounts of methane in the atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean.

The image below gives an idea of the height of this level, compared to historic levels, and how fast levels of methane (CH4) have been rising compared to levels of two other greenhouse gases, i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

 

[Abraham3]

I'd be inclined to believe the claims about Methane but since the same fools are telling us all about how damaging Carbon Dioxide is I'm apt to write off their Methane claims.

Maybe the kooks backed the wrong horse.

Assuming they are right, how is the new UN proposal going to actually fix any of this? That's the second part of the argument that the left can't answer.

Since these emissions are due to warming brought about by human CO2, it can fix it rapidly if someone actually took the CO2 problem seriously. But they've been listening to folks like you and the other ignorant deniers. After all, you offer then the east way out.

 

[Kosh]

Global warming is a natural process that happens on the planet, AGW is a farce and a religion.

CO2 does NOT drive climate.

The IPCC freely admits that it does not fully understand the methane cycle, and identifies methane release as coming from natural sources like swamps and termites.

And what is the largest GHG in the atmosphere?

 

[skookerasbil]

So ummmm......whats the point of this thread?

 

[Shaarona]

Coalbed methane bust leaves thousands of orphaned gas wells in Wyoming


News: Dec 23, 2013

by Irina Zhorov



Marjorie and Bill West's ranch in Campbell County, Wyo., sprawls across 10,000 acres of hills, rocky outcrops and steep valleys. Their family has run cattle and planted wheat, barley and alfalfa here for 80 years. But when natural gas companies tapped underlying coalbeds, mostly leased from other mineral rights holders, in 1999, artesian wells dried up and cottonwoods drowned in produced water. Today, about 100 gas wells sit abandoned on the property, making it difficult to work the fields and damaging farm equipment. And though none have blown out, neighboring wells have; some still have gas pressure.

Marjorie West partly blames the state, which regulates the industry but also relies on it for revenue. "They don't care about the people who have spent generations farming and ranching," West says. Wyoming has about 1,200 abandoned wells, mainly from a coalbed methane boom that peaked in the early to mid 2000s, when 2,500 wells were drilled annually.

more.

 

[Old Rocks]

Global warming is a natural process that happens on the planet, AGW is a farce and a religion.

CO2 does NOT drive climate.

The IPCC freely admits that it does not fully understand the methane cycle, and identifies methane release as coming from natural sources like swamps and termites.

And what is the largest GHG in the atmosphere?

And you continue to repeat unsubstanciated nonsense you pull out of your ass. Back it up, fellow. I back my posts up with links to real scientists and their articles. Do the same for your posts. Of course you cannot because CO2 was proven to be a GHG in 1858.

 

[asterism]

I'd be inclined to believe the claims about Methane but since the same fools are telling us all about how damaging Carbon Dioxide is I'm apt to write off their Methane claims.

Maybe the kooks backed the wrong horse.

Assuming they are right, how is the new UN proposal going to actually fix any of this? That's the second part of the argument that the left can't answer.

Since these emissions are due to warming brought about by human CO2, it can fix it rapidly if someone actually took the CO2 problem seriously. But they've been listening to folks like you and the other ignorant deniers. After all, you offer then the east way out.

So how is the new UN proposal going to actually fix any of this?

 

[skookerasbil]

Is this the new ruse the climate crusaders are rolling out these days?

Arctic methane?


I guess with record setting cold going on all over the USA and Calgary buried under snow for weeks now, it was time to change the tune.



Not that anybody is going to care...........