New Global Warming Threat - The Methane Time Bomb

From the ocean, methane gas are being emitted through the thawing of permafrost. In 2006 a research team of American and Russian scientists recorded bubbling of methane at two thaw lakes in northern Siberia. The like of these lakes, could contain some 500 billion tons of carbon, as much as all the rest of the world's permafrost.

Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Moreover, the amount of carbon locked up in methane is believed to be greater than what is locked up in coal. Scientists are worried that the methane release from the permafrost could be the start of a climate catastrophe, taking us to a territory beyond mitigation.

In 2008, scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed thousands of miles of the the entire length of Russia's northern coast discovered very intense concentrations of methane (Sept 2008 - The Independent). This concentration is sometimes up to 100 times the background levels. They warned that this could be the cause behind the rapid warming within the region in recent years, at a rate faster than other places on earth.

Methane bubbles trapped in lake ice in Siberia, bubbling at a rate 5 times faster than originally measured: according to a study released in Nature
Photo: Katey Walter

UAF researcher Katey Walter lighting methane on a thermokarst lake in Siberia in 2007. a
Ancient methane: bubble, boil and flame

Mass Extinction 250 Million Years Ago Sparked Dramatic Shift To Complex Marine Ecosystems - Science Daily

A study released by the British Antarctic Survey found that in the past 800,000 years methane had never tipped 750 ppb, but is now 1,780 ppb, perhaps an early indication of thawing permafrost.

Scientists are concerned that as the Arctic continues to warm and permafrost thaws, carbon could seep into the atmosphere in the form of methane, possibly fueling a cycle of carbon release and temperature rise.

(NOAA 2007)

A Methane clathrate or hydrate, is a form of ice crystal that traps a large amount of methane gas. They contain 3,000 times as much methane as is in the atmosphere. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here in the Arctic is estimated at 540 billion tons.

The clathrate gun hypothesis proposes that with global warming, the rise in sea temperatures may trigger the sudden release of this enormous amount of methane which in turn will causes further temperature rise, initiating a runaway process, as irreversible once started as the firing of a gun. The Russian polar scientists have strong evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release the long-stored methane gas.

The Day The Earth Nearly Died -
The Permian Triassic Mass Extinction

Scientists strongly believe that their sudden release in the past had been responsible for rapid increase in global temperatures, leading to mass extinction of species during the end-Permian extinction.

Long before the dinosaurs era, was a golden period of great biodiversity called the Permian era, 251 million years ago. Mysteriously came a period when 96% of the marine ecosystems and 70% of land species were wiped out within a few thousands years. What could have caused this biggest mass extinction, the Permian extinction event, on Earth? British geologist P. Wignall, explained by establishing 3 distinctive phases in the extinction event:

The drastic climatic fluctuations of cooling due to volcanic eruptions followed by global warming.

Subsequent 40,000 years saw the rise of 5^oC in water temperature to liberate the frozen methane. In just 5,000 years, there was massive loss of species from the world's oceans.

In the third phase, global warming caused additional 5^oC more over 35 000 years, and 95% of the Earth's species were extinct.

References and related news:

The Day The Earth Nearly Died - BBC
The Methane Time Bomb - Independent September 23 2008
Permian Mass Extinction on video
Mass Extinction 250 million years ago - Science Daily
Melting Arctic Ocean Raises Threat of Methane Time Bomb - Oct 30, 2008:e360.yale.edu
NOAA Atmospheric Carbon Dixide, Methane Rise Sharply in 2007: Climateprogress.org/2008/04/24

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The Day The Earth Nearly Died - The Permian Triassic Mass Extinction

The Day The Earth Nearly Died -
The Permian Triassic Mass Extinction