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A new source of methane discharge has been discovered in the Arctic Ocean near eastern Siberia, raising concerns about a “new tipping point” that could accelerate the pace of global warming, The Guardian reported Tuesday.
Scientists found the potent greenhouse gas bubbling from a depth of 350 meters into the Laptev Sea, with surface-level concentrations being released into the atmosphere between four and eight times the normal amount. One of the six monitoring points showed methane concentrations 400 times higher than expected in the normal air-sea balance.
“The discovery of the active release of hydrates from platform slopes is very important and unknown until now. This is a new page” He said Igor Semiletov, chief scientist aboard the research vessel Akademik M. Keldysh who is part of a multi-year expedition of the Russian-Swedish international survey of the Siberian shelf..
The discovery is raising concerns that a new feedback loop has already been triggered, accelerating climate change. A recent study co-authored by a member of the expedition he found that the loop could kick in if the Arctic warms up a few degrees.
“Right now, there is unlikely to be a major impact on global warming, but the point is that this process has now been unleashed,”Swedish scientist and co-author of the study Örjan Gustafsson he told The Guardian from the boat.
“This methane hydrate system on the East Siberian slope has been disturbed and the process will continue. “
The Guardian reported that warm Atlantic currents driven by human-induced climate disturbance are the likely cause of the massive methane discharge.
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth and the Guardian reported that it has not yet begun to freeze for the winter, already breaking records for the last date of sea ice formation after unusually melting early. of this spring.
This is potentially the third source of methane emissions from the shallower parts of the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. Semiletov expedition published first photos of a huge source of methane gas bubbling from the floor of the East Siberian Sea last fall.
The scientists emphasized that their findings are considered preliminary until they analyze the data collected on the ground and have their studies peer-reviewed.
“The discovery of the active release of hydrates from platform slopes is very important and unknown until now.Semiletov said. “They can potentially have serious climatic consequences, but we need more studies before we can confirm this.”
