Subsea methane release documented

[andygates]

You know that theory about how methane's trapped under permafrost and it could be a Bad Thing if it was to be released?  Well, it looks like it's happening.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University, in an Independent article:  "An extensive area of intense methane release was found [in the Laptev Sea, North of Siberia]. At earlier sites we had found elevated levels of dissolved methane. Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface. These 'methane chimneys' were documented on echo sounder and with seismic [instruments]."

"The conventional thought has been that the permafrost 'lid' on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane... The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed."

Oh, crap.

Comments

[despaer.livejournal.com]

Desertification is a function of dryness not heat, the desert zones should stay more or less where they are apart from some minor tweaks caused by things like the shutdown of local monsoons. In theory, if everything is hotter then there should be more moisture getting evaporated from the sea and turned into rain than is currently the case although I may stand to be corrected in this lot by those who actually know about the subject at hand. The problem isn't particularly that the world will run into difficulties, its just that there are large chunks of the planet that will stop being able to support as many people in as much comfort as they currently do. And as you already mentioned, 2bn (random guess BTW) displaced and disenfranchised people will make al Qaeda and the global financial crisis look like small beer and as the richest and softest targets we all have the most to lose.