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Huge methane gas emissions as Arctic shelf recedes
Calcutta News.Net
Thursday 15th December, 2011
Giant plumes of methane gas, some a kilometre in diameter, have been discovered bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by Russian scientists, alarming those trying to protect the region.
Scientists are concerned that as the Arctic Shelf recedes, the release of methane, the levels of which are unprecedented, could greatly accelerate global climate change.
Methane gas is around 20 times more harmful to the environment and in terms of green house gasses than carbon dioxide.
In a roughly 10,000 square mile area, Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said his team found more than 100 "fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the seabed".
Semiletov, speaking to the UK's Independent newspaper, said he believes there could be thousands of these methane fountains all around the Arctic region, extending from the Russian mainland to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf.
"This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It's amazing," he said.
Semiletov added that the methane fountains were emitting directly into the atmosphere so that the "concentration was a hundred times higher than normal".
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