Thawing Siberian limestone emits methane from features hundreds of miles long

essentialsaltes

Stranger in a Strange Land
Oct 17, 2011
32,794
36,089
Los Angeles Area
✟820,146.00
Country
United States
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Legal Union (Other)
Scientists have long been worried about what many call “the methane bomb” — the potentially catastrophic release of methane from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost.

But now a study by three geologists says that a heat wave in 2020 has revealed a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from a different source: thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost.

Nikolaus Froitzheim, who teaches at the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Bonn, said that he and two colleagues used satellite maps that measured intense methane concentrations over two “conspicuous elongated areas” of limestone — stripes that were several miles wide and up to 375 miles long — in the Taymyr Peninsula and the area around northern Siberia.

Surface temperatures during the heat wave in 2020 soared to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1979-2000 norms. In the long stripes, there is hardly any soil, and vegetation is scarce, the study says. So the limestone crops out of the surface. As the rock formations warm up, cracks and pockets opened up, releasing methane that had been trapped inside.



“It’s intriguing. It’s not good news if it’s right,” said Robert Max Holmes, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center. “Nobody wants to see more potentially nasty feedbacks and this is potentially one.”
 

iluvatar5150

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2012
25,021
23,928
Baltimore
✟551,652.00
Country
United States
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat
Scientists have long been worried about what many call “the methane bomb” — the potentially catastrophic release of methane from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost.

But now a study by three geologists says that a heat wave in 2020 has revealed a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from a different source: thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost.

Nikolaus Froitzheim, who teaches at the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Bonn, said that he and two colleagues used satellite maps that measured intense methane concentrations over two “conspicuous elongated areas” of limestone — stripes that were several miles wide and up to 375 miles long — in the Taymyr Peninsula and the area around northern Siberia.

Surface temperatures during the heat wave in 2020 soared to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1979-2000 norms. In the long stripes, there is hardly any soil, and vegetation is scarce, the study says. So the limestone crops out of the surface. As the rock formations warm up, cracks and pockets opened up, releasing methane that had been trapped inside.



“It’s intriguing. It’s not good news if it’s right,” said Robert Max Holmes, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center. “Nobody wants to see more potentially nasty feedbacks and this is potentially one.”

 
  • Haha
Reactions: Paulos23
Upvote 0

essentialsaltes

Stranger in a Strange Land
Oct 17, 2011
32,794
36,089
Los Angeles Area
✟820,146.00
Country
United States
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Legal Union (Other)
Upvote 0

durangodawood

Dis Member
Aug 28, 2007
23,403
15,550
Colorado
✟427,815.00
Country
United States
Faith
Seeker
Marital Status
Single
Good, that should speed up human extinction even more.

Can't wait!
More likely just mass suffering on an increasingly lifeless world, as ecosystems cant remotely adapt to the rate of change.

Sorry I couldnt give you worse news.
 
Upvote 0

Nithavela

our world is happy and mundane
Apr 14, 2007
27,997
19,440
Comb. Pizza Hut and Taco Bell/Jamaica Avenue.
✟488,903.00
Country
Germany
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Single
More likely just mass suffering on an increasingly lifeless world, as ecosystems cant remotely adapt to the rate of change.

Sorry I couldnt give you worse news.
I'll take human suffering if I can't have human extinction. :)
 
  • Friendly
Reactions: durangodawood
Upvote 0
This site stays free and accessible to all because of donations from people like you.
Consider making a one-time or monthly donation. We appreciate your support!
- Dan Doughty and Team Christian Forums