There’s a danger looming underneath the arctic ice and it comes in the form of bubbles. Yes bubbles. “They’re amazing and beautiful,” researcher Katey Walter said in a February L.A Times article.
Beautiful maybe, but also very hazardous. Small in size but big in strength, methane is a potent greenhouse gas that could accelerate the pace of climate change across the globe. Walter’s research found that methane has at 20 times the heat-trapping effect of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide and as warmer air thaws Arctic soils, as much as 55 billion tons of methane could be released from beneath Siberian lakes alone.
And today the BBC reports that a joint team of German and British scientists say they have evidence that methane is escaping from the Arctic sea bed. This time in Norway.
As temperatures rise, the sea-bed grows warmer and frozen water crystals in the sediment break down, allowing the methane bubbles trapped inside to escape.
The research team found that than 250 plumes of methane bubbles are rising from the sea-bed off Norway.
Methane release due to the melting Arctic is “a global warming wild card,” last year’s UNEP report stated. As large amounts entering the atmosphere could lead to “abrupt changes in the climate that would likely be irreversible.”
source: greenpeace, making waves
