Annual Report 2015

Large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are stored beneath the ocean floor in a stable form called hydrate. Hydrates occur naturally under high pressure and low temperatures. Water molecules freeze and encage methane with ice thus stabilizing it into solid form. The Arctic contains large reservo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:CAGE – Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate Report Series
Main Author: Mienert, Jürgen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/cage/article/view/6836
https://doi.org/10.7557/cage.6836
Description
Summary:Large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are stored beneath the ocean floor in a stable form called hydrate. Hydrates occur naturally under high pressure and low temperatures. Water molecules freeze and encage methane with ice thus stabilizing it into solid form. The Arctic contains large reservoirs of these hydrates, and they can melt in increasing tempo due to global warming. This could cause more methane to be released from the ocean floor. Methane is much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.