Warming Ocean Triggers Release of Greenhouse Gas

Friday, August 14 2009

Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, have found that the warming of an Arctic current over the last 30 years has triggered the release of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - from methane hydrate stored in the sediment beneath the seabed.

The scientists, working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London, and IFM-Geomar in Germany have found that more than 250 plumes of bubbles of methane gas are rising from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic, in a depth range of 150 to 400 meters.

Methane released from gas hydrate in submarine sediments has been identified in the past as an agent of climate change, and the likelihood of methane being released in this way has been widely predicted.

Professor Tim Minshull, Head of the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science, explained, “Our survey was designed to work out how much methane might be released by future ocean warming; we did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started.”