The Independent, a generally conservative but solid British publication has just released an exclusive report on scientists finding massive releases of Methane beneath the Arctic seabed.
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The report has some important implications for a possible runaway global warming since there is more methane locked under the permafrost than carbon locked in coal and methane is about twenty times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. The Independent summarizes the importance here:
Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
The report also notes that the researchers have seen "methane chimneys" leading to areas of the sea foaming up with methane bubbles. This means the methane is being released quite rapidly because the sea water has the capacity to absorb relatively large amounts of methane gas and release it to the atmosphere without visible bubbles.
This finding is important because it helps account for the failure of carbon dioxide levels to explain recent Arctic warming. It is also alarming because it could mean that it may already be too late to avoid a global warming tipping point.