https://www.newsweek.com/methane-boiling-sea-discovered-siberia-1463766
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...find-powerful-ever-methane-seep-arctic-ocean/
The group set out last month on a research vessel to study the scale and effects of methane gas emissions from underwater permafrost along the northern sea route, which Russia hopes can draw shipping away from the Suez Canal as the ice melts. The project also includes scientists from the UK, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.
This permanently frozen soil lies under two-thirds of Russian territory as well as much of the Arctic Ocean. It has been thawing as the Arctic warms at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet, cracking buildings and pipelines, hampering agriculture, awakening ancient diseases and releasing more greenhouse gases.
Methane is especially dangerous, as it can warm the earth 86 times as much as carbon dioxide over 20 years in the atmosphere.
A recent Russian study found that the thawing of underwater permafrost has doubled in the past three decades, reaching 18 centimetres a year. One of the consequences has been massive releases of methane from the seafloor, including from hydrates, ice-like formations of solid methane that can explode into gas if they are destabilised.
Methane could also raise the acidity of the water and kill off sea creatures as it breaks down.
Escaping methane has also been blamed for thousands of underground bubbles and hundreds of mysterious sinkholes
The expedition will next proceed to the Laptev Sea to study “mega-seeps” there.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...find-powerful-ever-methane-seep-arctic-ocean/
The group set out last month on a research vessel to study the scale and effects of methane gas emissions from underwater permafrost along the northern sea route, which Russia hopes can draw shipping away from the Suez Canal as the ice melts. The project also includes scientists from the UK, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.
This permanently frozen soil lies under two-thirds of Russian territory as well as much of the Arctic Ocean. It has been thawing as the Arctic warms at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet, cracking buildings and pipelines, hampering agriculture, awakening ancient diseases and releasing more greenhouse gases.
Methane is especially dangerous, as it can warm the earth 86 times as much as carbon dioxide over 20 years in the atmosphere.
A recent Russian study found that the thawing of underwater permafrost has doubled in the past three decades, reaching 18 centimetres a year. One of the consequences has been massive releases of methane from the seafloor, including from hydrates, ice-like formations of solid methane that can explode into gas if they are destabilised.
Methane could also raise the acidity of the water and kill off sea creatures as it breaks down.
Escaping methane has also been blamed for thousands of underground bubbles and hundreds of mysterious sinkholes
The expedition will next proceed to the Laptev Sea to study “mega-seeps” there.
