Green Options » arctic region http://greenoptions.com/tag/arctic-region Posts tagged 'arctic region' Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:11:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Scientists Discover New Global Warming Threat: ‘Methane Time Bomb’ Under Arctic Seabed http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/23/scientists-discover-new-global-warming-threat-methane-time-bomb-under-arctic-seabed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/23/scientists-discover-new-global-warming-threat-methane-time-bomb-under-arctic-seabed/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:11:31 +0000 Andrew Williams http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/23/scientists-discover-new-global-warming-threat-methane-time-bomb-under-arctic-seabed/ Scientists have today warned that global warming could rapidly accelerate as millions of tons of methane escape from the arctic seabed. According to preliminary findings, as the Arctic region gets warmer massive deposits of the greenhouse gas - 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide - are rising to the surface.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University, one of the expedition’s leaders, said in an email from their Russian research ship that, for the first time, the team had discovered an extensive area of methane release so intense that “the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface.” The team believe that the accelerated release is connected to rising temperatures throughout the Arctic region.

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