University of Alaska permafrost researcher Vladimir Romanovsky said the models the USGS used in its projections for Alaska's future carbon storage do not capture the vast uncertainties about how
much methane melting permafrost will emit.
Not exact matches
Walter mapped likely
methane deposits across the region; quantified how
much methane, formed when permafrost
melts, is bubbling out of current lakes; and compared that with the amount emitted from
methane - laden sediments taken from ancient frozen lakes.
In Alaska and eastern Siberia, she and her colleagues are cataloging the Arctic freezer's carbon contents, trying to understand how
much will be converted to
methane as the ice
melts.
The impactor's kinetic energy is transformed into heat, which
melts the permafrost, releasing
methane and water vapor and expanding the size of the resulting crater by as
much as a quarter.
Even if most of this will probably not escape in any eventuality, I think it's very important to determine as soon as possible whether we're talking about one well with a bad cement job, one well with
methane hydrate
melting around it, failure of containment of most wells in Bovanenkovo (which after all will all have
much the same conditions at the top of the reservoir), or failure of containment of most wells in the Yamal Project.
A few days ago the «shocking» headlines came out, describing some new research on how
much methane is now seeping out of the Arctic seafloor — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide, but
much shorter lived in the atmosphere — as the region warms and permafrost
melts.
More on the Potential Risk of
Methane Bubbling From the Siberian Seafloor Further reinforcement of the notion that while permafrost melting is certainly a cause for concern due to the global warming potential of trapped methane, at least where the Siberian seafloor is concerned, well, not s
Methane Bubbling From the Siberian Seafloor Further reinforcement of the notion that while permafrost
melting is certainly a cause for concern due to the global warming potential of trapped
methane, at least where the Siberian seafloor is concerned, well, not s
methane, at least where the Siberian seafloor is concerned, well, not so
much.
Methane plays a minor role in global warming but could get
much worse if permafrost starts to
melt.
Melting permafrost will emit
methane, and
methane is an ultra-potent greenhouse gas, but scientists do not think so
much it will escape in the coming century.
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?
Sea Ice in its «Death Spiral» Scientist Claims
Melting Arctic Ice Increases Permafrost Thaw Farther Inland Than Previously Thought Permafrost Holds Twice as
Much GHGs as Previously Thought: Over 1500 Billion Tons of CO2 and
Methane
We now enter an age where climate destabilization events may be
much more sudden; Pine Island WAIS, increasing permafrost
melting and
methane release may be catastrophic within a 3 year timeline.