http://www.sciencenews.org/...
Methane-making microbes thrive under the ice
Antarctica's ice sheets could hide vast quantities of the greenhouse gas
By Alexandra Witze
Web edition : Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
BALTIMORE — Microbes living under ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland could be churning out large quantities of the greenhouse gas methane, a new study suggests.
In recent years scientists have learned that liquid water lurks under much of Antarctica’s massive ice sheet, and so, they say, the potential microbial habitat in this watery world is huge. If the methane produced by the bacteria gets trapped beneath the ice and builds up over long periods of time — a possibility that is far from certain — it could mean that as ice sheets melt under warmer temperatures, they would release large amounts of heat-trapping methane gas.
Theoretically, as ice sheets melt, they themselves could release large amounts of methane, which has not been accounted for in any calculations of GHG load, at least as far as I know.
I don't want to copy and paste the article.
Click the hyperlink for the full story.
The process by which methane is removed in the upper atmosphere appears to be limited by solar radiation - as concentrations increase increase in the upper atmosphere, the effective 'half life' of this very potent GHG goes up.
The dynamics of how methane is broken down in the upper atmosphere is not fully understood; it's a shame we don't have a complete picture of this dynamic yet. It could prove to be crucial to finding ways to mitigate the worst of the damage we are doing now to the planet with GHGs.
So now, it's not just the clathrates, those nodules on the ocean floor we have to consider as being a big source of methane, or the large amounts we know is land based waiting for glaciers to melt, it's simply what's under the ice shelves themselves that could cause us to see an increase in methane; maybe a big increase.
Not good.
Not good at all.