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Scientists warn, #Arctic #methane is a ticking #climate timebomb

by Rizwan Choudhury, December 13, 2023

"Scientists have discovered that millions of cubic meters of methane, a potent #GreenhouseGas, are trapped beneath the #permafrost in #Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the #ArcticOcean. They have also found that this methane can migrate and escape through the permafrost's cold seal, creating a warming cycle that could lead to a massive increase in methane emissions and #ClimateChange.

"Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for at least two years. It covers about 15% of the Earth’s land surface and contains large amounts of organic matter that can release methane when thawed. Methane is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over 100 years.

Svalbard as cold storage

"#Svalbard has a long history of geological and glacial activity, making it similar to other parts of the Arctic region. The researchers used historical data from commercial and research wells to map the permafrost across Svalbard and identify areas where gas accumulations were present.

"They found that gas accumulations were much more common than expected. Of 18 hydrocarbon exploration wells drilled in #Svalbard, eight showed evidence of #permafrost and half of these struck gas accumulations.

"'All the wells that encountered gas accumulations did so by coincidence - by contrast, hydrocarbon exploration wells that specifically target accumulations in more typical settings had a success rate far below 50%,' said Dr Thomas Birchall of the University Center in Svalbard, lead author of the study published in Frontiers in Earth Science."

Read more:
https://interestingengineering.com/science/scientists-warn-arctic-methane-is-a-ticking-climate-timebomb

#ArcticMethane #MethaneLeaks #Norway #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming