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.
Bush’s fault.
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
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