The Rise of Deadly Methane Gas

This is the next chapter of my book, Fever Rising. Here are the first two threads

The Mystery of the Clintonville Booms
The Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis

Chapter 4: The Rise of Deadly Methane Gas

In the last chapter I referenced the MIT study about the levels of methane taking off simultaneously in 2007 all over the world. I was simply scratching the surface on the topic.

Wikipedia.com
In 2010, methane levels in the Arctic were measured at 1850 nmol/mol, a level over twice as high as at any time in the 400,000 years prior to the industrial revolution. Historically, methane concentrations in the world's atmosphere have ranged between 300 and 400 nmol/mol during glacial periods commonly known as ice ages, and between 600 to 700 nmol/mol during the warm interglacial periods. It has a high global warming potential: 72 times that of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 25 times over 100 years, and the levels are rising. Recent research suggests that the Earth's oceans are a potentially important new source of Arctic methane.

As you can see from the Wikipedia post above, in 2010, methane levels were hovering around 1850 ppb. By late October of 2013, Arctic News released another article about massive amounts of methane spewing from the Arctic and at that time, the levels were measured above 1950 ppb and they were bouncing up as high as 2,300 ppb during daily measurements. So, what is a safe level? According to Dr. James Hansen, an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, 1250 ppb is a livable level, but as you can see by the numbers, we are now well passed that level.

According to Arctic News, on November 9, 2013, it reached as high as 2,662 ppb, and has been hanging around very high levels through December. On December 3, 2,425 ppb, and on December 6, the levels were measured at 2,524 ppb. These extremely high levels have lasted for months and show no sign of letting up. You can visit the Arctic News blog and view a graph created by Dr. Leonid Yurganov that shows the measurement readings in January of each of the last five years, from 2009 to 2013, and the increase in methane release over that period is astonishing.

The rising levels of methane are frightening. So frightening, the main stream media won’t touch this story, despite the fact that this should be headlining the news on a nightly basis. In April of 2013, the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG) sounded the alarm that there is plenty of evidence of runaway climate change and the main culprit is methane. Here is a quote from AMEG in regards to a Methane Outbreak Alert they issued.

Arctic Methane Emergency Group statement:
Could the World be in Imminent Danger and Nobody is Telling?
Uniquely and fearlessly AMEG has studied key non-linear trends in the Earth-human System and reached the stunning conclusion that the planet stands at the edge of abrupt and catastrophic climate change as a result of an unprecedented rate of change in the Arctic.

Methane levels are rising and the evidence is pretty convincing. Study after study shows that measurements continue to escalate, not just in one location, but throughout different observations all over the planet.


Dissident Voice.org, April 27, 2013
Methane Outbreak Alert
by Robert Hunziker
In 2012, expeditionary teams in the Arctic were shocked, and dismayed, to find methane bubbling up from deep ocean sites. “Previous observations have pointed to large methane plumes being released from the seabed in the relatively shallow sea off the northern coast of Siberia, but the latest findings were made far away from land in the deep, open ocean where the surface is usually capped by ice.”

Physicist Eric Kort (Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University) of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ Pasadena, California was surprised to see methane levels raise so convincingly each time their research aircraft flew over cracks in the sea ice. These methane measurements come from Hiaper Pole-to-Pole Observations, which uses aircraft loaded with scientific instruments flying long distances at varying altitudes. The study, covering numerous flights into the Arctic at different times of the year, was published in Nature Geoscience. The study covered an area about 950 miles north of the coast of Alaska and 350 miles south of the North Pole.

Moreover, as if discovering methane emissions from the deep seas of the Arctic isn’t already of major concern, a recent study discovered immense amounts of methane locked under Antarctic ice: “They… calculated that the potential amount of methane hydrate and free methane gas beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet could be up to 4 billion metric tons, a similar order of magnitude to some estimates made for Arctic permafrost. The predicted shallow depth of these potential reserves also makes them more susceptible to climate forcing than other methane hydrate reserves on Earth.”

Likewise, Russian scientists have spotted methane plumes/bubbles that are more than a kilometer in diameter coming to surface along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which is the largest continental shelf in the world. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the sea over the shelf is shallow water, less than 50 metres deep, and consequently more immediately exposed to warming trends.

“The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.”

“We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale – I think on a scale not seen before. Some of the plumes were a kilometer or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere – the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal,” says Dr. Igor Semiletov of the International Arctic Research Centre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who led the 8th joint US-Russia cruise of the East Siberian Arctic seas.

So, just how deadly methane may be relates to just how much methane there is underneath the permafrost, the ice caps, sea floor and deep below our feet. There are vast amounts of methane stored below the sea floor and ice known as methane hydrates. These hydrate deposits can be found extensively in the Arctic shelves all along the shallow sediments. They are found frozen just below the deep ocean sea floor where water temperatures are very cold.

Continued...

According to Arctic climate scientist Natalia Shakhova, there are currently 5 gigatons of methane in the atmosphere today and that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of gigatons of methane in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. A shallow water column and weakening permafrost is all that separates this vast amount of methane from entering our atmosphere. She said that the permafrost is losing its ability to act as a seal, and if that’s not enough, the area is seismically and tectonically active and that activity is surging.

In the same video that Shakhova makes these claims, Dr. James Hansen also speaks about climate tipping points, the point to which global warming becomes something to which we have no control. At this point, civilization may have a difficult time surviving and there will be mass species die-offs. We could reach these tipping points in one of two ways, global temperatures could continue to increase by several degrees or there could be a “sudden time bomb” of a large abrupt methane release, either of which would be devastating to mankind.

UK climate expert, David Wasdell, stated on the video, “The question about a tipping point is also profoundly important. Not only do the feedbacks accelerate climate change, but they reach the point where the power of the feedback overwhelms our capacity to intervene and damp the system's behavior. At that point we move into runaway change, over which we have no further control. Once we pass that threshold we precipitate a mass extinction event similar to the five we have experienced in geological time.”

Wasdell said that this threat has the potential to wipe out 80-89% of life on the planet. Before we reach the point of no return, Wasdell said, “We have to work very fast to prevent the system moving in an accelerated and destabilized process that pushes us beyond that critical threshold, the point of no return."

Shakova was quick to predict the destabilization of the methane hydrates back in 2005 when her research, off the coast of Siberia, showed it had already begun and methane was emitting into the atmosphere. Shakova showed that a warming of just .8˚C had caused the hydrates to break up and float to the surface in solid form and finally, emit to the atmosphere. Many scientists predicted that the hydrates may release at the bottom but would dissolve in the ocean water and barely any would actually reach into the atmosphere.

In 2008, UK scientists from the National Oceanography Centre discovered 250 plumes of bubbling methane rising from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic. These plumes were escaping from a seabed nearly 400 meters in depth. The data was collected as part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s International Polar Year Initiative. They detected the plumes by using sonar and then sampling with a water-bottle over a range of depths.

According to a paper written by Graham Westbrook, Professor of Geophysics at the University of Birmingham, the data showed that the Arctic current warmed 1˚ Celsius over the course of 30 years and that this warming trend resulted in the methane hydrates breaking apart and releasing methane gas plumes. Hydrates are ice-like substances composed of water and methane which is stable in conditions of high pressure and low temperature (the ocean bottoms).

Most of the plume dissolves in the ocean waters before reaching the surface, although this contributes to ocean acidification. However, the gas does sporadically escape into the atmosphere.

One professor from the Initiative stated that they set out to study how much methane may be released in the future from ocean warming, “We did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started.”

Other examples of large methane releases include the seeps found off the east coast of the United States and in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. A large system of active gas has been found just a few dozen meters below the surface in the sea bed off Israel’s northern coast. The 72 square kilometer seep was found on the thin continental shelf. Researchers said that most of the deposit remains in the seabed, but some of the gas is escaping.

According to an article from Phys.org, “Researchers find undersea gas leaks off Israel,” published November 12, 2012, no less than 700 spots in the seabed that looked like possible gas springs were discovered.

“The researchers’ suspicions intensified when seismic data identified pockets of gas beneath the seabed,” the article stated.

Researchers also found some deep water gas plumes off the east coast of the U.S., as well. These were found at 1,000 meters below the surface. Researchers said there are 17 different methane gas plumes coming from a vent.

In another article from Phys.org, “Explorers discover deepwater gas seeps off Atlantic Coast,” published December 20, 2012, the seeps were mapped between November 2 and 20 at three locations with water depths of 3,300 to 5,250 feet. The article recounted approximately 25 distinct seafloor gas seeps were identified based on plumes rising into the water column as high as 3,600 feet. The sites are between 91 and 101 miles off shore, with one site east of Cape Henry, Va., and two sites south and southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass.

“Methane released into the water column is often oxidized to carbon dioxide, leading to changes in ocean chemistry, such as ocean acidification,” the article stated.

Also along the east coast, there is believed to be 2.5 gigatons of methane hydrate that could be destabilizing. These hydrates are spread out over 4,000 square miles. It’s not known whether these hydrates are actually pluming up to the surface as methane release just yet, but scientists worry that it may destabilize soon, if it hasn’t already started. The team of scientists studying the hydrates, claim 2.5 gigatons isn’t enough to trigger a climate changing event. It’s all the other destabilizing events found all over the world combined with the east coast discovery that has them worried.

Surprisingly this information came from an NBC News story on October 24, 2012. This was rare main stream media coverage of this climate change outlook.

Ben Phrampus told NBC News the wider destabilization evidence includes data from the Arctic and Alaska’s northern slope in the Beaufort Sea.

“It is unlikely that the western North Atlantic margin is the only area experiencing changing ocean currents. Our estimate may therefore represent only a fraction of the methane hydrate currently destabilizing globally,” Pamphrus said.
The NBC News story also suggested that methane could become a bigger climate factor than carbon dioxide.

The story concluded, affirming that they don’t know what caused the change in the Gulf Stream in the first place. The change in the Gulf Stream is what is bringing warmer waters into the Atlantic and up the east coast. They believe it could be changing sea level or even cold/fresh water deposited from the north.

I 've bought and read your book and I'd recommend it to everyone.

Superb and very sinister doom porn.

Very interesting thread and I thank you for posting the above information, I must admit your re-search does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling right now.

I read your second thread as well is there any more I am missing? I do remember reading lots of your posts here in "Fragile Earth" and they were for the most part real mind benders. I like the way you think and really appreciate the effort you put into getting your thoughts to the rest of us on ATS.

Regards, Iwinder

originally posted by: Ericthedoubter
I 've bought and read your book and I'd recommend it to everyone.

Superb and very sinister doom porn.

Thank you Ericthedoubter, for that review.

Glad you liked it.

Pretty scary stuff Rez. I just recently read (here on ATS, I think) that several more "holes" have mysteriously showed up in Siberia, largely thought to be methane releases....

originally posted by: Iwinder
Very interesting thread and I thank you for posting the above information, I must admit your re-search does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling right now.

I read your second thread as well is there any more I am missing? I do remember reading lots of your posts here in "Fragile Earth" and they were for the most part real mind benders. I like the way you think and really appreciate the effort you put into getting your thoughts to the rest of us on ATS.

Regards, Iwinder

Hey Iwinder, thanks. I am publishing my book chapter by chapter in threads here at ATS because I really want to get this information out there. The only two other threads so far are at the beginning of this thread which contain the first three chapters of the book, Fever Rising. This thread is the next chapter. There are a total of 36 chapters, the next one being Methane's Role in Global Warming.

I might add that I'm not doing this to try to sell books either. I really want to share this with the ATS community because it was here on these forums that the entire content of this book was born. All of my research stemmed from debates I participated in from late 2012 to early 2014. I had all the information gathered up and then over a five week period through March of 2014, I wrote the book, 130,000 words and 480 pages. There is a lot of information and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.

Here is a list of the chapter titles. Like I said, the first four are now posted here, while the rest are forthcoming.

Chapter 1 The Clintonville Booms
Chapter 2 Global Incidents on the Rise
Chapter 3 The Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis
Chapter 4 The Rise of Deadly Methane Gas
Chapter 5 Methane’s Role in Global Warming
Chapter 6 The Truth about Atmospheric Methane
Chapter 7 Methane and Fracking
Chapter 8 What is Hydrogen Sulfide
Chapter 9 Hydrogen Sulfide’s Role in Global Warming
Chapter 10 Natural Forces at Work
Chapter 11 A Journey Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 12 The Dangerous Gas Theory and Earthquakes
Chapter 13 The Dangerous Gas Theory and Volcanoes
Chapter 14 The Dangerous Gas Theory and Mass Animal Die-Offs
Chapter 15 The Dangerous Gas Theory and Disease Outbreaks
Chapter 16 The Dangerous Gas Theory and Fireballs
Chapter 17 When the Trumpets Sounded
Chapter 18 Welcome to the Boom Town
Chapter 19 The Daily Explosions and Unexplained Fires
Chapter 20 Sinkholes, Land Slips and Land Cracks
Chapter 21 A Closer Look at the Louisiana Bayou Corne Sinkhole
Chapter 22 The Humans Are Dying
Chapter 23 So Much Moisture in the Atmosphere
Chapter 24 Hell on Earth
Chapter 25 Burr…It’s So Cold! Where’s the Global Warming?
Chapter 26 Extreme Weather Events just Getting Started
Chapter 27 The Phenomenon of Eagle, Alaska
Chapter 28 The Very Volatile New Madrid
Chapter 29 A Closer Look at the Russian Arctic Vent
Chapter 30 What Does the Government Really Know?
Chapter 31 Chemtrails: Spraying to Fix the Atmosphere
Chapter 32 Awaiting the Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 33 The Hand of God and All the Signs
Chapter 34 The Countdown to Extinction has Begun
Chapter 35 Is It Too Late to Stop the Runaway Train?
Chapter 36 In the End

a reply to: Rezlooper

Thanks for the info and off I go to do some reading :-)
Regards, Iwinder

ETA ok I am up to snuff now I have read all four and what great information you provided in these four threads.

originally posted by: Wookiep
Pretty scary stuff Rez. I just recently read (here on ATS, I think) that several more "holes" have mysteriously showed up in Siberia, largely thought to be methane releases....

Yeah, I noticed how timely that was. I had just posted the first thread about the Clintonville Booms and then this news broke and a thread was started about the blow holes. I mention some opinions in that first thread The Mystery of the Clintonville Booms about how I believe methane explosions from underground, erupting when the earth's crust is fracturing, is the cause of most of these loud booms people are hearing all over the world. We're not getting actual blow holes, but then again, we may be, take a look at all the sinkholes happening. In these loud boom episodes, I think the earth's crust is tearing and causing the methane to explode out of the fissures. But, those Siberian blow holes are really something to think about because those are actual underground explosions to cause that. We know that the permafrost is thawing which is releasing the methane, but what could be the ignition source for such an explosion when it's deep underground?

Someone doing something good with all these crazy ATS thread battles??? Awesome to hear and well done!

I can't do much searching right now but what's the name of the book and how can I get it? On a side note, I have almost 15 years of my life living "up there". It's nice to know there may be another person here who knows what a Pamida is and what Lost Boys means at the quarry. Depending on the proximity we shared of course.

a reply to: Rezlooper

a reply to: DuckforcoveR

Pamida in our town never stood a chance once the Walmart moved in nearly 15 years ago. lol. The book is Fever Rising, here is a link to the Amazon page Fever Rising on Amazon

Thank you! That was the reason our town fought "tooth and nail" against one. They told us this much at least, in all reality we didnt stand a chance at getting a Walmart. Not with Minocqua and Medford so close.

a reply to: Rezlooper

Give me a couple of days and I'll let you know what I think of the book! In all honesty though (it may be touched on while reading it) I remember reading that the tipping point for methane hydrates was breached decades ago. We could have stopped everything overnight and it wouldn't have made a difference. I'm going to try and dig up the article I was reading, but I remember it talking about the tipping point in the past tense.

a reply to: Rezlooper

Firstly, is this book available as a ebook for those of us not in the USA?

Secondly, with all the holes appearing in Siberia, it seems like global warming is now a freight train out of control. Methane releases of the scale and volume that is sitting under the permafrost there is only going to make things worse. Much worse.

originally posted by: DuckforcoveR
Give me a couple of days and I'll let you know what I think of the book! In all honesty though (it may be touched on while reading it) I remember reading that the tipping point for methane hydrates was breached decades ago. We could have stopped everything overnight and it wouldn't have made a difference. I'm going to try and dig up the article I was reading, but I remember it talking about the tipping point in the past tense.

a reply to: Rezlooper

Not sure about the tipping point being reached a while ago, but it may have been reached now. In 1997, atmospheric methane leveled out and held steady for about ten years until 2007 when it started increasing again but at a much more rapid pace. It's parts per billion in the atmosphere has tripled over the Arctic regions within 10 years.

originally posted by: markosity1973
Firstly, is this book available as a ebook for those of us not in the USA?

Secondly, with all the holes appearing in Siberia, it seems like global warming is now a freight train out of control. Methane releases of the scale and volume that is sitting under the permafrost there is only going to make things worse. Much worse.

Sad, but true. And so few are paying attention.

And yes, at that Amazon page link you have a choice of ebook or print.

So,why all the the hysteria about CO2 then?It isn`t carbon dioxide that is the problem?

originally posted by: Sunwolf
So,why all the the hysteria about CO2 then?It isn`t carbon dioxide that is the problem?

CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and causes warming.

Methane is a gas that is several times more effective at trapping heat than CO2.

Basically, the hysteria over CO2 is (possibly now was) that if global emissions go unchecked it will cause enough warming to melt the permafrost in Siberia. This will then release a massive amount of methane into the atmosphere and send global warming into a rampant phase where it will accelerate extremely quickly.

Make of it what you will, but if the theory is correct and the evidence in Siberia is also correct, we will see global weirding of our weather enter a new even crazier phase in a very short time span.

originally posted by: Sunwolf
So,why all the the hysteria about CO2 then?It isn`t carbon dioxide that is the problem?

And to add to the poster above, CO2 levels are also extremely high and this in turn traps heat, but over a 100 year cycle, methane is 25 times more effective at trapping the sun's heat. Now that methane levels are escalating right along with CO2, it's a much more dire situation.

The thing is that only recently is methane now starting to get the attention it deserves from the scientific community and the main reason is that the global warming debate has focused so much for so long on CO2 that they were afraid they would lose all that ground made over these years if attention was diverted to CH4.