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Published on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shock-as-retreat-of-arctic-sea-ice-releases-deadly-greenhouse-gas-6276134.html">The Independent/UK</a>
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<h2 class="title">Shock as Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice Releases Deadly Greenhouse Gas</h2>
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<h3 class="subtitle">Russian research team astonished after finding 'fountains' of methane bubbling to surface</h3>
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by Steve Connor </div>
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<div><span>Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas
20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to
the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive
survey of the region.</span></div>
<div>The scale and volume of the methane
release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has
been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern
Russia for nearly 20 years.</div>
<div>In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov, of
the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that he
has never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being
released from beneath the Arctic seabed.</div>
<div>"Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only
tens of metres in diameter. This is the first time that we've found
continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000
metres in diameter. It's amazing," Dr Semiletov said. "I was most
impressed by the sheer scale and high density of the plumes. Over a
relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area
there should be thousands of them."</div>
<div>Scientists estimate that there are hundreds of millions of tonnes of
methane gas locked away beneath the Arctic permafrost, which extends
from the mainland into the seabed of the relatively shallow sea of the
East Siberian Arctic Shelf. One of the greatest fears is that with the
disappearance of the Arctic sea-ice in summer, and rapidly rising
temperatures across the entire region, which are already melting the
Siberian permafrost, the trapped methane could be suddenly released into
the atmosphere leading to rapid and severe climate change.</div>
<div>Dr Semiletov's team published a study in 2010 estimating that the
methane emissions from this region were about eight million tonnes a
year, but the latest expedition suggests this is a significant
underestimate of the phenomenon.</div>
<div>In late summer, the Russian research vessel Academician Lavrentiev
conducted an extensive survey of about 10,000 square miles of sea off
the East Siberian coast. Scientists deployed four highly sensitive
instruments, both seismic and acoustic, to monitor the "fountains" or
plumes of methane bubbles rising to the sea surface from beneath the
seabed.</div>
<div>"In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted
more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the
water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the
seabed," Dr Semiletov said. "We carried out checks at about 115
stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale – I
think on a scale not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometre or more
wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere – the
concentration was a hundred times higher than normal."</div>
<div>Dr Semiletov released his findings for the first time last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.</div>
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<div class="copyright-info">© 2011 The Independent</div>
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