Question # 2: If the planet is cooling, why would formerly
frozen methane hydrate deposits be thawing and releasing all over the globe?
On March 12, 2013, JOGMEC researchers announced that they had successfully extracted natural gas from
frozen methane hydrate.
Geologist Gerry Dickens suggested that the increased carbon - 12 could have been rapidly released by upwellings of
frozen methane hydrate from the seabeds.
Similar
frozen methane hydrates occur throughout the same arctic region as they did in the past, and warming of the ocean and release of this methane is of key concern as methane is 20x the impact of CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
When I read it I had in mind
the frozen methane hydrates at the bottom of the ocean (from «biologic processes»).
Not exact matches
The race is on to tap the world's biggest and most unusual fossil fuel supply —
methane trapped in
frozen hydrates in permafrost and at the bottom of the ocean
Under the ice sheet the
methane became stored as
hydrate, a solid form of
frozen methane.
Far more is locked away in
frozen deposits called
methane gas
hydrates.
The timing is coincident with a period of global warming, and Williscroft and colleagues suggest that it was this warming that released
methane frozen as
methane hydrates in the sea floor, as a relatively sudden
methane «burp.»
There is so much
methane that, as it
freezes instantaneously to form
hydrate, it draws all the water out of the seafloor ooze and dries it out completely — and often there is
methane left over, trapped as large bubbles in the porous
hydrate.
Under most
frozen hydrate deposits is a layer of free
methane gas occupying the pore spaces in the sediment.
As it approaches the seafloor, it chills, and in many places it
freezes, together with water in the mud, into solid
methane hydrate (white).
Scientists excavating the ocean floor have found huge chunks of
frozen methane along
Hydrate Ridge, about 60 miles off the coast of Oregon.
In March, Japan became the first country to successfully extract
methane from
frozen undersea deposits called gas
hydrates.
This glowing ledge showed that the mound contained
methane hydrate, a lattice of
frozen water that traps
methane gas molecules within its icy cages.
Worldwide, particularly in deeply buried permafrost and in high - latitude ocean sediments where pressures are high and temperatures are below
freezing, icy deposits called
hydrates hold immense amounts of
methane (SN: 6/25/05, p. 410).
My research indicates that the Siberian peat moss, Arctic tundra, and methal
hydrates (
frozen methane at the bottom of the ocean) all have an excellent chance of melting and releasing their stored co2.Recent
methane concentration figures also hit the news last week, and
methane has increased after a long time being steady.The forests of north america are drying out and are very susceptible to massive insect infestations and wildfires, and the massive die offs - 25 % of total forests, have begun.And, the most recent stories on the Amazon forecast that with the change in rainfall patterns one third of the Amazon will dry and turn to grassland, thereby creating a domino cascade effect for the rest of the Amazon.With co2 levels risng faster now that the oceans have reached carrying capacity, the oceans having become also more acidic, and the looming threat of a North Atlanic current shutdown (note the recent terrible news on salinity upwelling levels off Greenland,) and the change in cold water upwellings, leading to far less biomass for the fish to feed upon, all lead to the conclusion we may not have to worry about NASA completing its inventory of near earth objects greater than 140 meters across by 2026 (Recent Benjamin Dean astronomy lecture here in San Francisco).
A
frozen block of
methane hydrate (bluish white in center of photo) topped by crust of minerals and mussels.
An increased concentration of
methane release, Gustafsson suspects, may be coming from collapsing «
methane hydrates» — pockets of the gas that were once trapped in
frozen water on the ocean floor.
It can also melt vast quantities of
methane hydrates frozen into tundra, and also at depths along the oceanic continental shelves.
It can also melt vast quantities of
methane hydrates frozen into tundra,...»
Methane hydrates are another form of
frozen carbon, found in deeper soils.
The
methane release happens because the gas is freed from melting
hydrates — an icy substance found below the ocean floor, containing
methane in a cage of
frozen water.
What is concerning is the possibility that rapid global warming could occur faster than many people believe is possible, if global warming due to atmospheric carbon dioxide causes the Earth's atmosphere to warm enough to release enormous deposits of
frozen methane (CH4) that are stored in the permafrost above the Arctic Circle and in frozen methane ice, known as methane hydrate, underneath the floors of the oceans throughout the world (see: How Methane Gas Releases Due To Global Warming Could Cause Human Extin
methane (CH4) that are stored in the permafrost above the Arctic Circle and in
frozen methane ice, known as methane hydrate, underneath the floors of the oceans throughout the world (see: How Methane Gas Releases Due To Global Warming Could Cause Human Extin
methane ice, known as
methane hydrate, underneath the floors of the oceans throughout the world (see: How Methane Gas Releases Due To Global Warming Could Cause Human Extin
methane hydrate, underneath the floors of the oceans throughout the world (see: How
Methane Gas Releases Due To Global Warming Could Cause Human Extin
Methane Gas Releases Due To Global Warming Could Cause Human Extinction).
Especially worrying is the observation that up to 10 percent of this area is now being punctured by so - called taliks areas of thawed permafrost that provide avenues for the ready escape of
methane and opportunities for warmth to penetrate deep into the
frozen hydrate beneath.
The lakes may also be storing large volumes of the potent greenhouse gas
methane,
frozen in a form called
methane hydrates.
Methane hydrates — methane molecules trapped in frozen water molecule cages in tundra and on continental shelves — and organic matter such as peat locked in frozen soils (permafrost) are likely mechanisms in the past hyperthermals, and they provide another climate feedback with the potential to amplify global warming if large scale thawing occurs [209]-
Methane hydrates —
methane molecules trapped in frozen water molecule cages in tundra and on continental shelves — and organic matter such as peat locked in frozen soils (permafrost) are likely mechanisms in the past hyperthermals, and they provide another climate feedback with the potential to amplify global warming if large scale thawing occurs [209]-
methane molecules trapped in
frozen water molecule cages in tundra and on continental shelves — and organic matter such as peat locked in
frozen soils (permafrost) are likely mechanisms in the past hyperthermals, and they provide another climate feedback with the potential to amplify global warming if large scale thawing occurs [209]--[210].
Widespread release of
methane from
hydrates has happened a couple of other times — once apparently during the Paleocene / Eocene thermal maximum, and apparently back in the Precambrian, in a really huge event that rescued the earth from a
frozen «snowball earth» state.
Warming bottom waters in deeper parts of the ocean, where surface sediment is much colder than
freezing and the
hydrate stability zone is relatively thick, would not thaw
hydrates near the sediment surface, but downward heat diffusion into the sediment column would thin the stability zone from below, causing basal
hydrates to decompose, releasing gaseous
methane.
Interest in high - latitude
methane and carbon cycles is motivated by the existence of very large stores of carbon (C), in potentially labile reservoirs of soil organic carbon in permafrost (
frozen) soils and in
methane - containing ices called
methane hydrate or clathrate, especially offshore in ocean marginal sediments.
The expedition started from the well - established fact that an enormous amount of
methane is
frozen into a kind of ice known as
methane hydrate, buried in seafloor sediments and containing perhaps twice as much carbon as all the world's fossil - fuel reserves combined.
Frozen Heat: UNEP Global Outlook on
Methane Gas
Hydrates.
RealClimate is wonderful, and an excellent source of reliable information.As I've said before,
methane is an extremely dangerous component to global warming.Comment # 20 is correct.There is a sharp melting point to
frozen methane.A huge increase in the release of
methane could happen within the next 50 years.At what point in the Earth's temperature rise and the rise of co2 would a huge
methane melt occur?No one has answered that definitive issue.If I ask you all at what point would huge amounts of extra
methane start melting, i.e at what temperature rise of the ocean near the Artic
methane ice deposits would the
methane melt, or at what point in the rise of co2 concentrations in the atmosphere would the
methane melt, I believe that no one could currently tell me the actual answer as to where the sharp melting point exists.Of course, once that tipping point has been reached, and billions of tons of
methane outgass from what had been locked stores of
methane, locked away for an eternity, it is exactly the same as the burning of stored fossil fuels which have been stored for an eternity as well.And even though
methane does not have as long a life as co2, while it is around in the air it can cause other tipping points, i.e. permafrost melting, to arrive much sooner.I will reiterate what I've said before on this and other sites.
Methane is a hugely underreported, underestimated risk.How about RealClimate attempts to model exactly what would happen to other tipping points, such as the melting permafrost, if indeed a huge increase in the melting of the methal
hydrate ice WERE to occur within the next 50 years.My amateur guess is that the huge, albeit temporary, increase in
methane over even three or four decades might push other relevent tipping points to arrive much, much, sooner than they normally would, thereby vastly incresing negative feedback mechanisms.We KNOW that quick, huge, changes occured in the Earth's climate in the past.See other relevent posts in the past from Realclimate.Climate often does not change slowly, but undergoes huge, quick, changes periodically, due to negative feedbacks accumulating, and tipping the climate to a quick change.Why should the danger from huge potential
methane releases be vievwed with any less trepidation?
An increased concentration of
methane release, Gustafsson suspects, may be coming from collapsing «
methane hydrates» - pockets of the gas that were once trapped in
frozen water on the ocean floor.
There is an enormous amount of
methane (CH4) on earth
frozen into a type of ice called
methane hydrate.