What can I say. Wow. Just wow.
Lakes Boiling With Methane Discovered In Alaska
The article says it all and I don't really have much to add but thought I would bring it to everyone's attention if they are interested.
Here are a couple of snips:
Last month, UAF researcher Katey Walter brought a National Public Radio crew to Alaska’s North Slope, hoping to show them examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes.
When they reached their destination, Walter and the crew found even more than they bargained for: a lake violently boiling with escaping methane.
Walter studies methane emissions from arctic lakes, especially the connection between thawing permafrost and climate change. As permafrost around a lake’s edges thaws, the organic material in it--dead plants and animals--can enter the lake bottom, where bacteria convert it to methane, which bubbles into the atmosphere, sometimes in a spectacular fashion. Methane is much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
But then there is a qualifier, perhaps to calm people like me! :)
"It is unlikely that this methane plume was related to permafrost thaw," said Walter, adding that the methane boiling out of the lake was more likely related to natural gas seepage. "Should large quantities of methane be released from methane hydrates, for instance, in association with permafrost thaw, then we could have large sudden increases in atmospheric methane with potentially large affects on global temperatures."
What I can't understand is why this doesn't gel. At the start of the article it says she brought them to Alaska to show "examples of what happens when methane is released when permafrost thaws beneath lakes". But then she turns around and says that it's unlikely this was related to permafrost thaw and more likely related to natural gas seepage. So what gives? Which is it? I tried googling for more stories related to this but perhaps others might be more successful...