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Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic?

By 0 and 0 and 0
19 November 2020

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A team of 69 scientists from ten countries documented bubble clouds rising from a depth of around 300 metres (985ft) along a 150km (93 mile) undersea slope in the Laptev Sea, and confirmed high methane concentrations by hundreds of onboard chemical analysis. Picture: TPU

Scientists have shared the first results of a trip to the world’s largest deposit of subsea permafrost and shallow methane hydrates. 

Fields of methane discharge continue to grow all along the East Siberian Arctic Ocean Shelf, with concentration of atmospheric methane above the fields reaching 16-32ppm (parts per million).

This is up to 15 times above the planetary average of 1.85ppm. 

The preliminary results are from this year’s only international scientific expedition to the eastern Arctic.

Methane bubbling in the Eastern Arctic, video from this autumn international expedition to the Laptev and to the East Siberian Sea  

A team of 69 scientists from ten countries documented bubble clouds rising from a depth of around 300 metres (985ft) along a 150km (93 mile) undersea slope in the Laptev Sea, and confirmed high methane concentrations by hundreds of onboard chemical analysis.

A second discovery is pockmarks and craters sunk deep in shelf sediments of both the Laptev and East Siberian seas, actively venting bubbles and strong methane signals. 

‘All previously discovered fields of methane discharge showed an increase to various degrees, now we need to figure out exactly how much they grew,’ said the head of the expedition Professor Igor Semiletov.

‘One of the new discoveries was a field of sea bottom craters in the shallow part of the Laptev Sea, some of them 30 metres (98 ft) in diameter. 

‘They look like holes in the permafrost and, as our studies showed, they were formed by massive methane discharge. 

‘Also two more powerful seeps emitting methane through iceberg furrows were discovered in the East Siberian Sea.’

Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic
‘All previously discovered fields of methane discharge showed an increase to various degrees, now we need to figure out exactly how much they grew,’ said the head of the expedition Professor Igor Semiletov. Pictures: ISSS2020, TPU


The expedition mapped over 1,000 large seep fields (areas of massive methane discharge over 100 metres or 328 ft) and mega seep fields, each over 1,000 metres in linear dimension. 

‘We believe these emissions at this stage have not yet any large impact on global atmospheric methane and climate, yet these huge carbon/GHG capacitors are clearly activated’, the expedition communication page said.

Six mega seeps were registered in both the Laptev and the East Siberian seas in what the scientists described as ‘the first comprehensive observation of active release from methane hydrates on the Siberian-Arctic slope system’.

Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic


Bubbling methane craters and super seeps - is this the worrying new face of the undersea Arctic

‘All previously discovered fields of methane discharge showed an increase to various degrees, now we need to figure out exactly how much they grew,’ said the head of the expedition Professor Igor Semiletov (pictured). Pictures: ISSS2020, TPU


The expedition members spent 40 days on board the Akademik Keldysh research vessel, covering a distance of nearly 6,000 nautical miles.

For the first time the scientists managed to take samples of bottom sediments in a methane seep near the delta of River Lena, one of Siberia’s giant waterways.

Along with the Lena, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is fed by other large Arctic rivers like the Khatanga, Indigirka and Kolyma, which deliver significant quantities of organic matter thus making it particularly vulnerable to climate warming and erosion.

Comments (5)

So now we know for sure, global warming is occurring really at speed & soon this "Time Bomb" could explode. We have now an emergency that needs to be tackled most speedily or have we left it "too late"? That is the question?!


Wake up, World Politicos.
Jaker, Dundalk
25/11/2020 11:19
9
3
I realise your expedition was vitally important, and you've gathered a lot of data to analyze, and are at a point with some of that data demanding first priority because they are critical issues relevant to be known in today's time, Can you give an approximate time of when you may complete the research, please.
Huia , NewZealand Antarctica
25/11/2020 04:12
2
1
So then, A Really Smart Person realizes this a nature 'freebie', and develops a way to capture substantial amounts of methane to take it to be refined via Fischer-Tropsch into synthetic gasoline. And makes 90 trillion dollars doing it. The End.
Bert, Medford/USA
25/11/2020 02:17
2
8
Exciting research...The drawing is very well to understand...thank . Is it possible to distinguish sediment origin methan and thermogenic origin methan with chemical analysis ?
Jocelyne, FRANCE
21/11/2020 16:24
12
0
question: is this all happening in the general path the magnetic north pole is moving? if so, could the magnetism be affecting or causing this?
jabberwocky, hometown
20/11/2020 22:17
7
29
1

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