Why Sea Levels could Rise: Arctic Methane Plumes

note: This a serious development for the planet. My position,taken previously, is that these kinds of earth changes are controlled by galactic forces of evolution, and are not man-made. But that doesn’tchange their impact. This could be a factor precipitating rising sea levels, which will radically alter the major cities on the Earth and speed us back towards a more agrarian lifestyle. Have your hoe ready?
🙂 Michael

*SHOCK AS RETREAT OF ARCTIC SEA ICE RELEASES DEADLY GREENHOUSE GAS*
The Independent
December 14, 2011

http://nhne-pulse.org/methane-gas-in-arctic-sea/

Original Link
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html>

Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane — a greenhouse gas 20
times more potent than carbon dioxide — have been seen bubbling to the
surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive
survey of the region.

The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of
the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East
Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov, of the
Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that he has
never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being released
from beneath the Arctic seabed.

“Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only
tens of metres in diameter. This is the first time that we’ve found
continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000
metres in diameter. It’s amazing,” Dr Semiletov said. “I was most
impressed by the sheer scale and high density of the plumes. Over a
relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area
there should be thousands of them.”

Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of millions of tonnes of
methane gas locked away beneath the Arctic permafrost, which extends
from the mainland into the seabed of the relatively shallow sea of the
East Siberian Arctic Shelf. One of the greatest fears is that with the
disappearance of the Arctic sea-ice in summer, and rapidly rising
temperatures across the entire region, which are already melting the
Siberian permafrost, the trapped methane could be suddenly released into
the atmosphere leading to rapid and severe climate change.

Dr Semiletov’s team published a study in 2010 estimating that the
methane emissions from this region were about eight million tonnes a
year, but the latest expedition suggests this is a significant
underestimate of the phenomenon.

In late summer, the Russian research vessel Academician Lavrentiev
conducted an extensive survey of about 10,000 square miles of sea off
the East Siberian coast. Scientists deployed four highly sensitive
instruments, both seismic and acoustic, to monitor the “fountains” or
plumes of methane bubbles rising to the sea surface from beneath the seabed.

“In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted
more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the
water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the seabed,”
Dr Semiletov said. “We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points
and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale — I think on a scale
not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometre or more wide and the
emissions went directly into the atmosphere — the concentration was a
hundred times higher than normal.”

Dr Semiletov released his findings for the first time last week at the
American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.