Study Says Undersea Release of Methane Is Under Way

[Xipe Totec]

Source: The New York Times

Climate scientists have long warned that global warming could unlock vast stores of the greenhouse gas methane that are frozen into the Arctic permafrost, setting off potentially significant increases in global warming.

Now researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and elsewhere say this change is under way in a little-studied area under the sea, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, west of the Bering Strait.

Natalia Shakhova, a scientist at the university and a leader of the study, said it was too soon to say whether the findings suggest that a dangerous release of methane looms. In a telephone news conference, she said researchers were only beginning to track the movement of this methane into the atmosphere as the undersea permafrost that traps it degrades.

But climate experts familiar with the new research reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science that even though it does not suggest imminent climate catastrophe, it is important because of methane’s role as a greenhouse gas. Although carbon dioxide is far more abundant and persistent in the atmosphere, ton for ton atmospheric methane traps at least 25 times as much heat.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/science/earth/05methane.html

[slackmaster]

1. I started eating Raisin Bran for breakfast a few days ago

Sorry if I tripped up the readings.

[Xipe Totec]

2. The study has already compensated for the granola effect nt

[Duer 157099]

3. Finally! Climate change in a language the tea baggers can relate to

Farts!

[SkyDaddy7]

26. All this story means is...

We will see Glenn Beck on his show telling us how the Obama Admin will force us to have Methane Detectors installed in our bathrooms to monitor a normal human function like breathing when it comes to CO2.

The Tea Baggers wear utter ignorance like a badge of honor!

[Ferret Annica]

4. This is worrisome, and could change the nature of the entire global warming game

[mattvermont]

5. as in...Game Over nt.

[glinda]

24. game over is accurate

[SkyDaddy7]

29. If this news was not bad enough CHECK THIS OUT!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/science/earth/04climate.html?scp=4&sq=evolution&st=cse

[EJSTES2005]

9. Game Changer........

Sadly, I don't see any skeptics in this game changing their minds for this story or any other. Their reptile brains are all ready made up. All change including climate change has a liberal bias.

[ThomThom]

18. This is not new, years ago I heard that as the oceans warm

more methane gas that is held deep in the ocean's depths will be released so it is not a big stretch that frozen areas that melt will also release methane gas. Yes this is a very serious problem, the oceans have absorbed a lot of the increase in temperature that man has created.

[David Zephyr]

6. This has been a time bomb ticking for a long time.

Thanks for posting this.

[truthisfreedom]

7. We are now stuck with a tech solution to climate change.

I don't believe we can turn this around anymore.

[naaman fletcher]

13. What is wrong with a tech solution?

Levitt proposed one that I believe would cost about $40 million dollars in freakonomics 2.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Sea cows.....I knew it!!!

[MilesColtrane]

10. The Clathrate Gun Hypothesis?

Release of methane from the oceans may have been responsible for two previous extinctions in Earth's history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

The consequences of a methane-driven oceanic eruption for marine and terrestrial life are likely to be catastrophic. Figuratively speaking, the erupting region "boils over," ejecting a large amount of methane and other gases (e.g., CO2, H2S) into the atmosphere, and flooding large areas of land. Whereas pure methane is lighter than air, methane loaded with water droplets is much heavier, and thus spreads over the land, mixing with air in the process (and losing water as rain). The air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%; as such mixtures form in different locations near the ground and are ignited by lightning, explosions and conflagrations destroy most of the terrestrial life, and also produce great amounts of smoke and of carbon dioxide. Firestorms carry smoke and dust into the upper atmosphere, where they may remain for several years; the resulting darkness and global cooling may provide an additional kill mechanism. Conversely, carbon dioxide and the remaining methane create the greenhouse effect, which may lead to global warming. The outcome of the competition between the cooling and the warming tendencies is difficult to predict.

[Xipe Totec]

12. Lake Nyos disaster 1986

On August 21, 1986, possibly triggered by a landslide, Lake Nyos suddenly emitted a large cloud of CO2, which suffocated 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby villages. Though not completely unprecedented, it was the first known large-scale asphyxiation caused by a natural event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos

Just a tiny example of what could happen.

[MilesColtrane]

15. I remember seeing a PBS special about that event.

...just terrifying.

[ThomThom]

19. also the Bermuda Triangle is said to be caused by huge releases

of methane gas that sink ships and cause airplane to explode when going through the gas cloud.

[PfcHammer]

23. Large-scale asphyxiation at my crib

morning after I hit the enchilada platter at Arroyo's :rofl:

[zeemike]

16. Methane clathrate has been used to explain the flood.

of the bible.
According to the theory the methane clathrate layer in the sea fractured and released huge amounts of water into the air.
And this explains the statement in Exodus that "the fountains of the deep were released"

[naaman fletcher]

11. 3rd paragraph contradicts headline, am I the only one who noticed? /nt

[Xipe Totec]

14. I don't see the contradiction

Does the third paragraph say that a methane release is not underway?

[naaman fletcher]

17. OK.. i guess it's not a contradiction..

I am very sensitive to sensationalist headlines.

[dipsydoodle]

27. You're right in a way.

She's doing what they all do sooner or later - covering her arse.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

20. Americans need to cut back on sea burritos to stave off apocalypse! n/t

[Odin2005]

21. We're screwed!

:scared:

[FailureToCommunicate]

22. Time to view "Day After Tomorrow (the first 1/2) again. Climate Disruption is just over that cliff..

[Psephos]

25. "undersea permafrost"

The Siberian shelf was once dry land. Thousands of square miles of it were exposed for a long time to subfreezing temperatures, creating permafrost as much as 500 or more feet down from the surface.

As sea level rose at the end of the last ice age, the sea covered the vast frozen littorals. They've been underwater now for something like 10,000 years.

It's hardly surprising that after being submerged and inundated by liquid ocean for thousands of years that the permafrost is thawing. Water temperatures at the bottom of the ocean are remarkably stable and uniform, regardless of surface fluctuations, and have been exerting a slight but steady warming influence on the buried frozen zone and its methane hydrates since before the pyramids were built.

This effect is not due to human activity.

[dipsydoodle]

28. There are methane hydrate deposits off the coast of NC

They've even considered attempts at mining. Dumbfucks - could destabilise the continental shelf.

[AlienGirl]

30. The big question is how much warming, and how quickly? Are we talking Venus here?