Well, last year, they found significant gas columns breaking the surface in the Leptev sea, and the Ridiculously Resilent Ridge is still there, going on 4 years now, of a stationary high....
‘The area of spread of methane mega-emissions has significantly increased in comparison with the data obtained in the period from 2011 to 2014,’ he said. ‘These observations may indicate that the rate of degradation of underwater permafrost has increased.’
Dr Semiletov and his team are paying special attention to clarify the role of the submarine permafrost degradation as a factor in emissions of the main greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide and methane—in the atmosphere.
The team are examining how the ice plug that has hitherto prevented the exit of huge reserves of gas hydrates has today ‘sprung a leak’. This shows in taliks—unfrozen surface surrounded by permafrost—through which powerful emissions of methane reach the atmosphere.
Scientists are eager to determine the quantity of methane buried in those vast areas of the Siberian Arctic shelf and the impact it can have on the sensitive polar climate system.
Five years ago the professor has claimed: ’We found more than 100 fountains, some more than a kilometre across....These are methane fields on a scale not seen before. The emissions went directly into the atmosphere… Earlier we found torch or fountain-like structures like this..”
there are a bunch of on ship blog posts from the folks on the Leptev expeditions that show a LOT of methane getting to the surface.
Well, last year, they found significant gas columns breaking the surface in the Leptev sea, and the Ridiculously Resilent Ridge is still there, going on 4 years now, of a stationary high....
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/n0760-arctic-methane-gas-emission-significantly-increased-since-2014-major-new-research/
‘The area of spread of methane mega-emissions has significantly increased in comparison with the data obtained in the period from 2011 to 2014,’ he said. ‘These observations may indicate that the rate of degradation of underwater permafrost has increased.’
Dr Semiletov and his team are paying special attention to clarify the role of the submarine permafrost degradation as a factor in emissions of the main greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide and methane—in the atmosphere.
The team are examining how the ice plug that has hitherto prevented the exit of huge reserves of gas hydrates has today ‘sprung a leak’. This shows in taliks—unfrozen surface surrounded by permafrost—through which powerful emissions of methane reach the atmosphere.
Scientists are eager to determine the quantity of methane buried in those vast areas of the Siberian Arctic shelf and the impact it can have on the sensitive polar climate system.
Five years ago the professor has claimed: ’We found more than 100 fountains, some more than a kilometre across....These are methane fields on a scale not seen before. The emissions went directly into the atmosphere… Earlier we found torch or fountain-like structures like this..”
there are a bunch of on ship blog posts from the folks on the Leptev expeditions that show a LOT of methane getting to the surface.