Climate Outcome NZ
  • Climate Outcome. Home page.
  • Latest posts & news
  • Temperature
  • Precipitation changes in a warming world.
  • Increased flood damage in a warming world.
  • Drought
  • Wind
  • El Nino Southern Ocilation. ENSO.
  • Sea Level
  • Polar melting
  • Arctic sea ice + weather.
  • West Antarctica
  • Ocean Acidity
  • Plant Die Back. Animal Migration.
  • Climate threats
  • Streams a vital resource.
  • Clean energy alternatives.
  • Climate Change in the Bay of Islands
  • The Author. Bob Bingham.
  • Satellite accuracy.
  • Reference sites

Bob Bingham Blog page.

A series of opinion pieces on, mostly climate change and related subjects to do with New Zealand.

Back to home page.

Methane Hydrate release.

12/12/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
An interesting post in Science Daily from research at Washington University shows that as the top 700 metres  of the ocean warms, it is releasing the large stores of methane hydrates on the ocean floor. Methane  hydrates collect at between 700 metres and 2000 metres where the water is 2C or cooler and is held in its frozen form by cold temperature and pressure. It is formed either microbially or where methane was formed by thermal decomposition of organic matter.
There are vast stores of frozen methane on the ocean floor and as the sea warms the methane is unfrozen and the gas is released into the sea, either to bubble to the surface or be absorbed into the water.  Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is 20 times stronger than CO2 over 70 years. It is claimed to be one of the main forcing agents that increases the worlds temperature in a natural multiplying action.

Picture
The release of methane is a similar process to the raising level of the tree line on mountains.  As the atmosphere warms the point of freezing rises and in a mirror event as the sea warms, methane melts at deeper levels.
Oceans all round the world, from Siberia to Antarctica are reporting the release of methane from the continental shelf and such large releases of this very powerful greenhouse gas is of considerable concern to the future of life on the planet.


2 Comments
Robert Bristow
15/12/2014 03:01:01 am

Bob - Many thanks for the blog on the recent Science Daily article, I was also interested to read earlier of a huge Methane Clathrate store that was found closer to home (off New Zealand's East Coast)

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/2598266/methane-reserves-off-east-coast

A more interesting gas than Carbon Dioxide (as it is highly volatile and can be used for energy) and with a much stronger radiative forcing effect. Many authoritative articles highlight melting permafrost, tundra and an associated massive release of methane as a tipping point to abrupt climate change, and it is strongly suggested it was an important mechanism in past massive climatic events such as the g Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) extinction event (also known as The Great Dying).

The National Research Council recently released a paper recommending that an early warning system was put in place to monitor such events as massive methane release, ENSO shift, ocean current changes, die-back of Amazon rainforest etc, and I hope swift progress is being made on that.

Researchers Natalia Shakhova, Igor Semiletov and others from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are prominent in monitoring the massive methane clathrate store on the Siberian seafloor, and are producing good papers on the increasing releases there (as summer sea ice melts).

However in the atmosphere methane has a lot shorter life than carbon dioxide (around 10 years as opposed to CO2's many millenniums), so our efforts to control mankind's carbon dioxide release are paramount above all.

Reply
Bob Bingham
20/12/2014 05:00:06 am

Hi Bob. I have just been looking at the Radio NZ article you mentioned. It brings it home that we are a very new and volcanic country but why we would have so much methane I don't know.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Bob Bingham 

    Occasional blog posts on topical news items concerning the climate.  Please click the RSS feed to receive updates.

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    May 2021
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    December 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    September 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Clean Water
    Climate Change.
    CO2 Levels
    El Nino
    Floods
    Methane
    Ocean Acidity
    Pine Island Galacier
    Sea Level Rise
    Soil Loss
    Storms

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly