New research shows that a high level of the potent methane gas has started to release over a large area of the Arctic Ocean, which can have serious consequences on the global climate.
The frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – termed as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – and other greenhouse gases have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia.
The research team reported that most of the bubbles of methane gas were currently dissolving in the water but some amount is also venting into the atmosphere.
“At this moment, there is unlikely to be any major impact on global warming, but the point is that this process has now been triggered. This East Siberian slope methane hydrate system has been perturbed and the process will be ongoing,” said the Swedish scientist Örjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University.
The warming effect of methane is 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide and can accelerate the pace of global heating. Additionally, the United States Geological Survey has previously listed Arctic hydrate destabilization as one of the four most serious scenarios for abrupt climate change.
Previously in 2010, Semiletov had also reported leaking of methane gas and other powerful greenhouse gas under the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean.
With the Arctic temperature now rising more than twice as fast as the global average, this discovery of destabilized slope frozen methane could result in accelerating global warming.
