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An international research team on a Russian research ship was the first to find evidence that methane, which until now has been mostly frozen, already flows into the atmosphere from below the Arctic Ocean, that is, the Arctic Ocean. Researchers in the Lapland Sea off the northeast coast of Siberia found that approx. Eighty times more powerful than carbon dioxide, it leaks in a strip 10 kilometers wide and 150 kilometers long.
The methane stored up to now in the frozen soil of the seabed is released in bubbles and dissolves in the water, thus appreciably increasing the methane concentration. However, the water does not absorb everything, scientists say that the methane concentration around the surface of the water is already four to eight times the average level, but they still cannot say exactly how much methane is currently leaking into the atmosphere. It’s more likely not much yet, but the discovery remains a milestone, showing that methane release has started under the Arctic Ocean, which climate researchers have identified as one of the biggest risks in recent years.
This is because methane released into the Arctic can significantly accelerate global warming, and warming can melt additional methane reserves from the Arctic soil. In most climate models so far, it has been very uncertain that it has not been possible to predict exactly when this methane release will begin.
Methane is not only found under the Arctic Ocean, but also in the frozen soils of northern Siberia. The melting of the gas has already started here, and already this summer and fall Russian researchers have reported the formation of several new craters and deep sinks, which they say may be traces of methane released from the ground.
The process is not expected to stop, and it will certainly accelerate, as the Arctic has already warmed significantly faster than the rest of the planet. The Laptyev Sea, for example, has yet to begin to freeze, and that has not been the case since the beginning of human measurements. Not freezing is also likely to increase the amount of methane released. (Guardian)
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