Although I've been talking about this for more than ten years on various message boards, it is only now that scientists are becoming alarmed about methane hydrate melting.
Methane hydrate is a combination of methane and ice in permafrost and on sea bottoms. Some of it has been building up for many millions of years so that some deposits are several thousand feet thick.
As methane hydrates melt, they add methane to the environment, which is itself a greenhouse gas, and and then with a half life of about 12 years, the methane oxidizes to carbon dioxide.
We also have a positive feedback loop. As methane hydrate melting adds to the rate of global warming, that addition to global warming will melt the methane hydrate deposits faster, which will accelerate global warming again, which will will increase the rate of melting, etc.
So far, the climate models being used have not including methane hydrate melting, so the predictions of all of them about the amount of global temperature change should be too low.
Jim
Methane hydrate is a combination of methane and ice in permafrost and on sea bottoms. Some of it has been building up for many millions of years so that some deposits are several thousand feet thick.
As methane hydrates melt, they add methane to the environment, which is itself a greenhouse gas, and and then with a half life of about 12 years, the methane oxidizes to carbon dioxide.
We also have a positive feedback loop. As methane hydrate melting adds to the rate of global warming, that addition to global warming will melt the methane hydrate deposits faster, which will accelerate global warming again, which will will increase the rate of melting, etc.
So far, the climate models being used have not including methane hydrate melting, so the predictions of all of them about the amount of global temperature change should be too low.
Jim
