more methane outgassing

[Old Rocks]

MACKENZIE RIVER DELTA, Northwest Territories — Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence — and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world.



Photo by RICK BOWMER/AP

Canadian researcher Rob Bowen sets up a weather station on the remote, boggy fringe of North America, 1,400 miles from the North Pole, where he and colleagues were trying to learn more about seeps in the 25,000 lakes of this vast Mackenzie River Delta.
“On a calm day, you can see 20 or more ‘seeps’ out across this lake,” said Canadian researcher Rob Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A tossed match would have set it ablaze.

“It’s essentially pure methane.”

Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global-warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a climate catastrophe.

Troubling bubbles - ColumbiaTribune.com

 

[Old Rocks]

More than 250 plumes of gas bubbles have been discovered emanating from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin, in a depth range of 150–400 m, at and above the present upper limit of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Some of the plumes extend upward to within 50 m of the sea surface. The gas is predominantly methane. Warming of the northward-flowing West Spitsbergen current by 1°C over the last thirty years is likely to have increased the release of methane from the seabed by reducing the extent of the GHSZ, causing the liberation of methane from decomposing hydrate. If this process becomes widespread along Arctic continental margins, tens of Teragrams of methane per year could be released into the ocean.

Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin

 

[dilloduck]

So Earth is committing suicide---I knew we'd get to the bottom of this.

 

[KittenKoder]

Want a good way to reduce methane?



Sew Gores ass and mouth shut.

 

[Old Rocks]

Editorial: Climate crunch warning

I AM shocked, truly shocked," says Katey Walter, an ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. "I was in Siberia a few weeks ago, and I am now just back in from the field in Alaska. The permafrost is melting fast all over the Arctic, lakes are forming everywhere and methane is bubbling up out of them."

Back in 2006, in a paper in Nature, Walter warned that as the permafrost in Siberia melted, growing methane emissions could accelerate climate change. But even she was not expecting such a rapid change. "Lakes in Siberia are five times bigger than when I measured them in 2006. It's unprecedented. This is a global event now, and the inertia for more permafrost melt is increasing."

The dramatic changes in the Arctic Ocean have often been in the news in the
Arctic meltdown is a threat to humanity - environment - 25 March 2009 - New Scientist

 

[dilloduck]

This is a global event now

NOW it's global ??? I've been told it's been global for years now.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Yet more methane outgassing

http://www.usmessageboard.com/1547936-post1.html

 

[Zoom-boing]

more methane outgassing

Did Bones give her dog fried squid again?

 

[mdn2000]

LOL, the artic is not the only thing passing gas, yep its true, the earth got warmer and look what happened, we produced more food and made more people, we lost no cities on the coasts, wow, I am so afraid of a warm earth. Damn too, I just bought a new flannel I wont need.