Skip to comments.Arctic melt releasing ancient methane
Posted on 05/20/2012 10:31:04 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere.
The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts.
Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change.
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2 and levels are rising after a few years of stability.
There are many sources of the gas around the world, some natural and some man-made, such as landfill waste disposal sites and farm animals.
Tracking methane to these various sources is not easy.
But the researchers on the new Arctic project, led by Katey Walter Anthony from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF), were able to identify long-stored gas by the ratio of different isotopes of carbon in the methane molecules.
Using aerial and ground-based surveys, the team identified about 150,000 methane seeps in Alaska and Greenland in lakes along the margins of ice cover.
Local sampling showed that some of these are releasing the ancient methane, perhaps from natural gas or coal deposits underneath the lakes, whereas others are emitting much younger gas, presumably formed through decay of plant material in the lakes.
"We observed most of these cryosphere-cap seeps in lakes along the boundaries of permafrost thaw and in moraines and fjords of retreating glaciers," they write, emphasising the point that warming in the Arctic is releasing this long-stored carbon.
"If this relationship holds true for other regions where sedimentary basins are at present capped by permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets, such as northern West Siberia, rich in natural gas and partially underlain by thin permafrost predicted to degrade substantially by 2100, ..
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
So can we now let the cows fart in peace?
Then, let’s build a time machine, and go back and butt-plug all the dinosaurs....seems about as reasonable approach to global warming as the AGW zealots have now.
I love the smell of ancient methane in the morning!
(I thought the ice shelves were increasing???)
It’s nothing really. Just Algore investigating the situation and farting all over the place.
No mention that this methane has been escaping since the end of the last ice age.
What do they think happened when greenland ice sheet melted before?
ug, just more propaganda. Do these people have any critical thinking skills?
I thought H2O was the most important green house gas. I wonder whether this reporter who climbs all over himself to rank CO2 as #1 ranks H2O?
“Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2”
I thought water vapor was #1???????
They most certainly do and they use them to drive their evil agenda.
Pull my finger!
Dinosaur farts !
Is the methane escaping because the Senate never passed Obama’s cap and trade bill?
As Obama says, we need to stop the rising of the oceans, and allow the planet to heal.....................
As Al Gore said, global warming isn’t just a political issue, or an economic issue, it’s a moral issue.
Well, that shuts down debate right there. Any liberal who declares a liberal issue is a “moral issue” is supposed to cause shock and awe and silence is all of us.
Coincidently I’ve been releasing some methane myself.
Same thing happens after I eat Taco Bell.
So have the polar bears who are eating better because of global warming.
That happens to me if I drink beer and eat ice cream.
Go Methane Go!
-Alaskans for Global Warming-
(Too bad we had record snows this year...)
If we can get a bunch of refrigerators and along extension cord I believe we can save the planet
So thousands of years ago this methane was trapped in the ice.
Now it is being released. Where did it come from so may years ago?
It certainly couldn’t have been because Fred flintstone was diring his diesel powered truck.
The only thing this proves is that the earth is in a new cycle and that anthropologic Global warming is Horse Shyt. Pun intended.
Well, this changes things. I was going to go buy a new oven this afternoon, since ours went on the fritz, but clearly I won’t be needing one by, say, the end of the month, so phooey on that. I’ll just wait for Algore to cook my goose.
What’s that? Goose my cook?
Sorry, never mind.
Seems to me that we should use it as an energy source, rather than hand wringing about it.
Not a chance. Doesn't fit the desired narrative.
"Old" methane being released is nothing new.
In fact, methane hydrate suddenly breaking off the ocean floor and gasifying on its way to the surface has been postulated as a cause for the unexplained disappearance of ships via swamping and sinking.
Methane in the upper atmosphere decomposes into CO2 and water vapor.
Seems to me that we should use it as an energy source, rather than hand wringing about it.”
Your suggestion makes way too much sense and is, therefore, not worthy of further exploration as those in charge have already made up their mind about the path we will follow.
Ancient Methane? Wasn’t there a report recently about ancient Methone? These ancient Greek cities are hard to keep straight. There’s another Methone in SW Greece near Pylos, besides the one in Macedonia, and there’s a Methana near Epidaurus, but I don’t know where Methane is.
(Happy 80th dad!)
Which came first?
Increasing temperatures melt ice to release trapped “old Methane” which increases the greenhouse gasses or increased greenhouse gasses cause temperatures to rise.
Wasn’t this supposed to be the “tipping point” of the doomsday scenario? Where’s the two-meter sea rise?
It’s these so called scientists who are releasing alot more than methane.
Why isn’t this posted in religion?
Any article that calls CO2 the most important greenhouse gas is purely religion and has nothing to do with science.
We must stop global warming to preserve these endangered methane popsicles.
We must apply for a grant or ten.
I would say, because of decomposing matter deep within the earth rising causes methane and increased temperature.
Since wasting matter varies in amounts, it causes the earth to cool down or warm up depending on the amount of methane released by shear force, not warming. Sort of like volcanos only in smaller amounts and spread over large areas.
The earth needs to fart, just like the rest of us!
That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. %%%>)
Ditto with the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The whole thing smells like sulfur.
soon we may see our elected officials calling for a ban on this frozen methane. It will work just like a ban on criminals having guns.
It’s ManBearPig doing this he is alive and well, just ask Al Gore.