Extensive Methane Venting to the Atmosphere from Sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

Bubble, Bubble, Warming and Trouble Vast quantities of methane are stored in ocean sediments, mostly in the form of clathrates, but methane is also trapped in submerged terrestrial permafrost that was flooded during the last deglaciation. There is thus concern that climate warming could warm ocean w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Shakhova, Natalia, Semiletov, Igor, Salyuk, Anatoly, Yusupov, Vladimir, Kosmach, Denis, Gustafsson, Örjan
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2010
Subjects:
Arctic
permafrost
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1182221
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1182221
Description
Summary:Bubble, Bubble, Warming and Trouble Vast quantities of methane are stored in ocean sediments, mostly in the form of clathrates, but methane is also trapped in submerged terrestrial permafrost that was flooded during the last deglaciation. There is thus concern that climate warming could warm ocean waters enough to release methane cryogenically trapped beneath the seabed, causing even more warming. Shakova et al. (p. 1246 see the Perspective by Heimann ) report that more than 80% of the bottom water, and more than 50% of the surface water, over the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, is indeed supersaturated with methane that is being released from the sub-sea permafrost, and that the flux to the atmosphere now is as great as previous estimates of that from the entire world ocean.

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