#frozen methane

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[thoughtlessarse]

'Sleeping giant' Arctic methane deposits starting to release, scientists find

Exclusive: expedition discovers new source of greenhouse gas off East Siberian coast has been triggered

Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal.

High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia, prompting concern among researchers that a new climate feedback loop may have been triggered that could accelerate the pace of global heating.

The slope sediments in the Arctic contain a huge quantity of frozen methane and other gases – known as hydrates. Methane has a warming effect 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide over 20 years. The United States Geological Survey has previously listed Arctic hydrate destabilisation as one of four most serious scenarios for abrupt climate change.

The international team onboard the Russian research ship R/V Akademik Keldysh said most of the bubbles were currently dissolving in the water but methane levels at the surface were four to eight times what would normally be expected and this was venting into the atmosphere.

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[eartharchives]

Can melting of frozen methane explain rapid climate change 56 million years ago?

New research, led by the University of Southampton, suggests that the release of methane from the seafloor was much slower than previously thought during a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago.

[theecoreport]

Methane Is Bubbling Up Through The Waters

Methane Is Bubbling Up Through The Waters

By Roy L Hales

It has been five years since University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Katey Walter Anthony took us to a frozen lake in Alaska. Yet, in light of study suggesting a similar phenomenon 1/3 of a mile beneath the oceans surface, her research is highly pertinent. Methane is bubbling up through the waters.

(more…)

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[theecoreport]

Warmer Ocean May Be Releasing Frozen Methane

Warmer Ocean May Be Releasing Frozen Methane

A University of Washington Study Suggests 1/3 of a mile below the surface, the Warmer Ocean May Be Releasing Frozen Methane into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas.

Originally Published on UW Today

Warming ocean temperatures a third of a mile below the surface, in a dark ocean in areas with little marine life, might attract scant attention. But this is precisely the depth where frozen pockets of…

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[peterdejong]