STAFF WRITER 16:37 HRS IST
London, Mar 6 (PTI) Methane, the second most common greenhouse gas from human activities after carbon dioxide, is bubbling out from the frozen Arctic much faster than expected and could stoke global warming, scientists have warned.
A study by researchers from the University of Fairbanks in Alaska showed that methane, trapped in the permafrost - soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years - over time and now 8 million tonnes of it is seeping out every year due to rising temperatures.
According to co-author of the study Natalia Shakhova, "Release of just a small fraction of the methane held in East Siberian Arctic Shelf sediments could trigger abrupt climate warming".
"Subsea permafrost is losing its ability to be an impermeable cap.
The permafrost of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (an area of about 2 million kilometers squared) is more porous than previously thought. The ocean on top of it and the heat from the mantle below it warm it and make it perforated like Swiss cheese. This allows methane gas stored under it under pressure to burst into the atmosphere. The amount leaking from this locale is comparable to all the methane from the rest of the world's oceans put together. Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Image: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
Scientists took sonar measurements to record clouds of methane bubbles rising from the seafloor. Photo: Igor Semiletov, University of Alaska
Local Time: 9:23 AM AKST (GMT -09)
Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W
Elevation :: 33 feet
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Temperature :: 34 Fahrenheit
Conditions :: Overcast
Windchill :: 21 Fahrenheit
Humidity :: 56%
Dew Point :: 19 Fahrenheit
Wind :: 24 mph out of the East Southeast
Wind gust :: 36 mph
Pressure :: 29.63 inches (Falling)
Visibility :: 9.0 miles
UV :: 0 out of 16
Scattered Clouds 3700 feet
Clouds :: Overcast 4000 feet
(Above Ground Level)
