Posted on 09/15/2007 4:30:55 PM PDT by blam
Source: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Date: September 15, 2007
Lakes Boiling With Methane Discovered In Alaska
Science Daily — Last month, UAF researcher Katey Walter brought a National Public Radio crew to Alaska’s North Slope, hoping to show them examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes.
When they reached their destination, Walter and the crew found even more than they bargained for: a lake violently boiling with escaping methane.
“It was cold, wet and windy. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a helicopter and paddled out to a huge methane plume in the middle of the lake with no idea what to expect, how strong the bubbling plume would be, whether or not our raft would stay afloat, how dangerous it would be to breath the gas,” said Walter, an assistant professor in UAF’s Institute of Northern Engineering and International Arctic Research Center. “The violent streams of bubbles made the lake appear as if it were boiling, but the water was pretty cold."
Walter studies methane emissions from arctic lakes, especially the connection between thawing permafrost and climate change. As permafrost around a lake’s edges thaws, the organic material in it--dead plants and animals--can enter the lake bottom, where bacteria convert it to methane, which bubbles into the atmosphere, sometimes in a spectacular fashion. Methane is much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Walter said this summer’s fieldwork indicates that methane hotspots, such as the one she and the crew experienced, can come from various sources, not just thawing permafrost. Her next goal is to identify and quantify the sources of the methane hotspots around Alaska.
“It is unlikely that this methane plume was related to permafrost thaw,” said Walter, adding that the methane boiling out of the lake was more likely related to natural gas seepage. “Should large quantities of methane be released from methane hydrates, for instance, in association with permafrost thaw, then we could have large sudden increases in atmospheric methane with potentially large affects on global temperatures.”
Walter’s project is one of many at UAF happening as part of the International Polar Year, an international event that will focus research efforts and public attention on the Earth’s polar regions.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Drats! All those endangered caribou walking into the lake and passing gas. Shameful! Just shameful!
Must be those seacows.
Cthulhu fartin’
Quick, somebody light a match.
If it was so cold they should have just flicked a Bic ... all our problems with the methane gas and these reports would have been solved!
Apparently Alec Baldwin didn't make it all the way to France.
Winter is coming soon and it will all freeze up.No big deal unless there is a market for it or we get invaded by methane breathing aliens.
Imagine that...global warming traced to earth farts and fish farts...quick, paint them all green...(old joke, you know)
Cthulhu!
Now, that’s a real hoot. Wife and I laughed so much we had tears...
And I hope they didn’t light a match to read the maps!
IT’S BUSH’S FAULT!
Methane = natural gas.
“whether or not our raft would stay afloat”
Good reason to fear. If you happen to be boating over a sudden methane gas release, the bubbles effectively reduce the boyancy of the water. Your ship weighs more than the water and methane bubbles that you displace and you sink.
There is an area off North Carolina that is subject to methane eruptions. Some place in Scotland is an area called the Witch’s hole. Fishing boats are lost when methane eruptions occur and the boats sink and do not come up again.
So they didn’t know where they were going, they didn’t know what would be there, didn’t know what the dangers were and had no idea what the hell they were doing...sounds like typical liberals to me.
I hope you lit a match!
Stupid is as stupid does. First, they boat out into an area suspected of venting methane, whereupon had they entered it, the principles of buoyancy allowing their craft to float would have resulted in their sinking. Of course if they didn’t sink, and there was methane there, then the odorless and colorless gas could have caused death by suffocation.
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