Millions of tons of Methane bubbling up in the Artic

A group of scientists have found areas of the sea in the Artic foaming with gas bubbles, coming from methane chimneys from the sea floor.

Recent research suggests that in the past (and I believe there are several threads here on ATS talking about this) drastic climate change was initiated by mass bursts of Methane.

The discovery of the release of millions of tons of Methane in the Arctic could mean be disasterous.

At some locations, methane concentrations reached 100 times background levels. These anomalies have been seen in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, covering several tens of thousands of square kilometres, amounting to millions of tons of methane, said Dr Gustafsson. "This may be of the same magnitude as presently estimated from the global ocean," he said. "Nobody knows how many more such areas exist on the extensive East Siberian continental shelves.

www.independent.co.uk...

From the sounds of it ,reminds me of Tieera Del Fuego,had brother in law from the Argentine,said you could see flames belching up from ground

thanks for posting this!

I have been talking about this for a while with my dad... a very interesting topic. They did a show a while back on PBS about those scientist...

not only is there gas bubbling up from the artic, I have read (no link) it's happening in a few places around the world..
it's being over looked and it's HUGE.

I also believe I heard that methane is being released from the thawing tundra of Greenland as well.

Bottle it up, truck it in and use it as a substitute for gasoline... Two problems solved at the same time.

Earth getting rid of the virus known as mankind?

Its good timing, at least we cant escape the planet and spread somewhere else yet. 40 more years and we probably could.


[edit on 24-9-2008 by Copernicus]

It's an interesting concept, trying to capture the gas. I wonder if there are any technologies for such a thing?

There are unfortunatly a number of factors to consider whether or not it would be adventageous for capturing the methane.

#1 would it be safe environmentally for the Arctic Ocean.
#2 Is it feasable to go bopping around the Arctic Ocean for the few months ships can access these methane resources before it freezes over for winter.

There are benefits for technology methane can be used for.

Methane can be used as a green renewable energy. www.learningjoyresources.com...

Here is a fact sheet on methane www.c-f-c.com...

#3 to consider. Leagally, who would have rights to capture the methane? US, Canada, Russia?

reply to post by Copernicus


Ok, virus Humanus will be wiped out (actually not, just weakened). But what about other, "innocent" life forms? Or imagine - in 30 years big asteroid is going near Earth. Human "virus" , if survived , could have prevented possible crash and mega extinction event. Innocent bacteria will not prevent it.
I think that instead of thinking of your relatives as a virus, doing something to reduce our childish littering of our planet will be more constructive.

Fire in Ice: What Are Gas Hydrates?

In 1810, Sir Humphrey Davy discovered a new class of materials, known as gas hydrates or clathrates. These ice-like structures form when high pressure and low temperature trap light natural gases within rigid cages of water molecules. The trapped gas can be methane (hence “methane hydrate”), butane, propane, ethane or a number of other light natural gases.

The hydrates containing hydrocarbons, such as methane, are truly “fire in ice.” If you light a methane hydrate deposit, it will burn like an oil lantern wick.

Gas hydrates occur in permafrost regions as well as beneath and just above the seafloor on the slopes flanking every continent, where the pressure is high and the temperature is low. Both industry and the academic community are studying the substances to better understand their past, present and future roles for climate, energy and development.

Some researchers speculate that blowouts of marine gas hydrates in the geologic past may have released enough methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to drive up global temperatures. Additionally, some researchers hypothesize that when hydrates broke away from steep slopes on the seafloor, they could have triggered massive seafloor avalanches and even tsunamis. Other scientists are investigating the potential of gas hydrates, onshore and offshore, as a future energy source.

So just a few degrees warm and the Earth could be sent spiraling out of control?

geotimes

Peace

Justice

edit= added link

[edit on 24-9-2008 by ...and justice for some]

Originally posted by ...and justice for some

So just a few degrees warm and the Earth could be sent spiraling out of control?

Absolutely. In fact, if this stuff is bubbling up from the oceans NOW on a large scale, which scientists will need to demonstrate more conclusively, we are already in HUGE trouble. Trouble we may very well not be able to survive. I had always hoped that people would eventually see reason and bring the population down, which would make SOME of us surviving an event like this more likely. Mainly, because it would ease the possibility of us nuking ourselves out of existence when the poo really hit the fan.

This happening on a large scale is one of the "worst case" climatic disaster scenarios. It would be the equivalent, if it is happening, to being hit by a large asteroid. Make no mistake about it. The only difference is that we will have a lot more time to suffer this way.

blogs.discovermagazine.com...

If global temperatures continue to rise, massive amounts of methane gas could be released from the 10,000 gigaton reserves of frozen methane that are currently locked in the world’s deep oceans and permafrost. Passing this climate tipping point would result in global warming that would be far worse and more rapid than scientists’ current estimates. … The study’s lead author suggests it could happen fast — not over thousands or millions of years, but possibly within a century.

Kennedy’s predictions on the potential timescale of the methane release are the most alarming to date; other researchers have predicted that it would take thousands of years for methane to be released from the oceans.

Nobody foresaw this happening NOW. The "worst case" thinkers were thinking within a hundred years, and that wasnt what most were accepting. I am a proponent of the "this is going to hit us faster than anyone thinks" school of thought and even I, as pessimistic as I am, did not see this happening now.

If this IS occurring, more than just in a few localized areas, there is no possible way this gas is going to be able to be trapped and contained as a cheap source of energy on the scale that would be needed to prevent the increased warming, and, the increasingly large releases of methane. Those who were hoping to use it were talking about mining it in its frozen form as it sat on the seafloor, not the near impossible task of locating all the places in the ocean it was bubbling up and capturing it there.

Lets hope that scientists find a local reason for these releases, and it is not an indication that the oceans have warmed enough for this to start happening all over the place.

wow I had a dream about this very thing a while ago. I just fobbed it off as more insanity...

but, strange now to read this.

I dreamt that I was sitting on the cliff outside of my house, I live on the coast and I was watching the sunset, as I sat there I saw gas rising up out of the ocean. At first I wasn't sure what it was so sat there and just watched this vapour coming up out of the ocean. I then saw it errupt into flames, from where I was sitting, it looked like the sky was on fire but it was just above the water level of the ocean. It was like the water turned into fire.

For days after the dream whenever I went outside, I would just see these flames in the sky.

shrug... actually I always see that. I used to see the sky on fire years back but tried to apply it logically to my life... in a psychological way, and to this day, I have never been able to apply it logically.

so... maybe it is like the collective thing that happened to people when the mudslide happened in Aberfan, Wales. Everyone prior to it was going to the Dr's because they were having nightmares about choking to death or being buried alive, suffocating.

I don't know what that phenomena is called... but if other people start dreaming the sea errupts into fire, then hmm... perhaps time to get a fire blanket.





[edit on 25-11-2008 by Thurisaz]

This doom is as fresh as...well, methane gas. I look forward to future implications of this, hopefully no greater than 10 days from now.