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Methane leaks from the environment and human activity are a serious greenhouse gas problem. Methane is many times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, and scientists now say that the Moon plays a key role in how much gas is released.
Everything is due to the tides and the drag effect that the gravitational pull of the Moon has on them, a phenomenon that we can quantify. By placing a piezometer in the Arctic Ocean for four days and four nights, the researchers were able to measure changes in temperature and pressure over time.
What they found was that the presence of methane gas near the seafloor increases and decreases with the tides, which is a major factor contributing to the release of methane and impacting the climate change we are witnessing now and in the future. .
The piezometer is recovered. (P. Domel)
“We note that gas accumulations, found in sediments one meter from the seabed, are vulnerable to even slight pressure changes in the water column,” says marine geophysicist Andreia Plaza-Faverola from the University of Tromsø – Arctic University of Norway. .
“Low tide means less hydrostatic pressure and greater intensity of methane release. High tide equates to high pressure and less intensity of release.”
These methane leaks into the Arctic Ocean have occurred for thousands of years, caused by factors such as seismic and volcanic activity, but there is much more to learn about the mechanisms that cause this leak and affect its rate.
That’s where the Moon and the tides come in. The researchers say the tides could be used as a way to predict the amount of gas released from the Arctic Ocean from day to day, even with variations in tidal height of less than 1 meter (3.3 feet). ).
One of the conclusions is that the release of gas from the seafloor is more widespread than conventional sonar data shows, and we may have underestimated the amount of gas that is leaking into the Arctic right now, even if not everything is released at once.
“Earth systems are interconnected in ways that we are still figuring out, and our study reveals one of those interconnections in the Arctic,” Plaza-Faverola says.
“The Moon causes tidal forces, the tides generate pressure changes and currents at the bottom that in turn shape the seabed and impact submarine methane emissions.”
The study also raises the possibility that sea level rise could counteract the release of methane from the oceans, as higher water pressure keeps the gas trapped for longer. It’s just one of a multitude of factors that scientists must weigh.
Next, the researchers want to capture more data over a longer period of time to see how tidal changes are affecting methane release in the region as a whole – from deep-sea sites like this one, to areas shallow water where the effect of tidal variations on gas release is likely to be even greater.
While tidal changes have been linked to methane emissions in the past, the geographic location of this study and the fluctuations observed from even minor differences in pressure make it a crucial new information point for climate change modeling. future.
“This is the first time this observation has been made in the Arctic Ocean,” says marine geologist Jochen Knies.
“It means that slight changes in pressure can release significant amounts of methane. This is a game changer and the biggest impact of the study.”
The research has been published in Communications from nature.
