Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice (methane pockets may be time bombs)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-global-warming22-2009feb22,0,646220.story

Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice

As permafrost thaws in the Arctic, huge pockets of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- could be released into the atmosphere. Experts are only beginning to understand how disastrous that could be.

By Margot Roosevelt
11:44 AM PST, February 20, 2009

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska -- Four miles south of the Arctic Circle, the morning sky is streaked with apricot. Frozen rivers split the tundra of the Seward Peninsula, coiling into vast lakes. And on a silent, wind-whipped pond, a lone figure, sweating and panting, shovels snow off the ice.

The young woman with curly reddish hair stops, scribbles data, snaps a photo, grabs a heavy metal pick and stabs at white orbs in the thick black ice.

"Every time I see bubbles, I have the same feeling," says Katey Walter, a University of Alaska researcher. "They are amazing and beautiful."

Beautiful, yes. But ominous. When her pick breaks through the surface, the orbs burst with a low gurgle, spewing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that could accelerate the pace of climate change across the globe.

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[Lebam in LA]

1. OMG - This is so weird

I met my daughter and granddaughter at The Grove in Los Angeles today and in the 1st store we entered I noticed a warning sign about methane gas explosions. There are lots of areas of Los Angeles with methane problems. It does make perfect sense because the Grove is very close to LaBrea Tar Pits.

[Believing Is Art]

2. There was something about this in Earth: The Biography

The narrator interviewed a researcher in the permafrost in Russia. They drilled some holes in the ice where there were bubbles and then exposed a flame to the drilled out hole. It exploded. Cool, but frightening :scared:

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. The BBC had video a couple of years ago (if I recall correctly)

Of new melt lakes in Siberia, with methane bubbles in them. A researcher upended a funnel in the water, with a tube attached, and lit the output.

[frogcycle]

3. this issue is far from funny, but

I gotta say that those methane bubbles really CAN be bombs, especially in church :)