LONDON: Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and if frozen methane gets release in the form of bubbles, it rises all the way to the surface, enters the atmosphere and causes more warming. A few of that gas escapes from the sediment pores as a gas. That’s close to the amount released by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
While carbon dioxide remains a major threat to the stability of the Earth’s climate, methane, while less intensive on a grand scale, is actually a more stifling greenhouse gas. While it does not stay as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, it is deemed initially far more damaging due to its effective heat absorption.
The team examined 168 methane plumes over the past decade, concluding that subsurface warming is the cause of the methane’s release.
Lead researcher H. Paul Johnson from the University of Washington says these plumes are probably not coming from the seafloor sediments, but rather from decomposing frozen methane. Frozen temperatures in pockets of the deep ocean are suddenly bubbling up and turning into methane plumes after they’ve been dormant for thousands of years.
Methane has largely contributed to sudden swings in Earth’s climate in the past. Yet recent reports show that methane emissions in the Arctic may have contributed to rising temperatures in the area.
Deep oceans full of darkness and with little marine life is something that will attract the least attention, but it seems that they could be the key to understanding methane bubble plumes off Washington, Oregon.
Several studies proved that methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
In a press release, the researchers explained that methane deposits are abundant on the continental margin of the Pacific Northwest coast.
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