CLIMATE CHANGE
Methane 'escaping' from Arctic sea bed September 23, 2008. As reported on ITN - U.K. Scientists fear the rate of global warming could accelerate due to the escape of methane from beneath the Arctic seabed. Huge methane deposits are rising to the surface as the Arctic region heats up, according to preliminary findings. Researchers found massive stores of sub-sea methane in several areas across thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf and observed the gas bubbling up from the sea floor through "chimneys", according to reports. One of the expedition leaders, Orjan Gustafsson, of Stockholm University in Sweden, said researchers had found "an extensive area of intense methane release". Mr Gustafsson said: "At earlier sites we had found elevated levels of dissolved methane. Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface. These 'methane chimneys' were documented on echo sounder and with seismic [instruments]." The researchers believe escaping sub-sea methane - which is around 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide - is connected to the recent rises in temperatures in the Arctic region. He added: "The conventional thought has been that the permafrost 'lid' on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. "The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane. The permafrost now has small holes. "We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20080923/tuk-methane-escaping-from-arctic-sea-bed-dba1618.html |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
