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Study finds permafrost thaw, glacier melt releasing methane by 123wert sdfsf
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Study finds permafrost thaw, glacier melt releasing methane |
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Study finds permafrost thaw, glacier melt releasing methane By Yereth Rosen Posted 2012/05/21 at 11:46 pm EDT ANCHORAGE, Alaska, May 21, 2012 (Reuters) — Methane from underground reservoirs is streaming from thawingpermafrost and receding glaciers, contributing to the greenhousegas load in the atmosphere, a study led by scientists at theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks has found. The study, published online on Sunday in the journal NatureGeoscience, is the first to document leakage of deep geologicmethane from warming permafrost and receding glaciers, said itslead author, Katey Walter Anthony. Release of methane into the atmosphere from any source is troublingbecause methane has far more potent greenhouse powers than carbondioxide, climate scientists say. Methane has more than 20 times theheat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, University of AlaskaFairbanks researchers said.
Scientists have speculated about such methane releases and modelinghas predicted that it would happen as the cryosphere - the earth'slayer of ice and frozen ground - softens and melts, Walter Anthonysaid in a telephone news conference on Monday. "But no one had ever shown that it was occurring or that it was awidespread phenomenon," she said. "This paper really is the firsttime that we see with field evidence that this type of geologicmethane is escaping as the cryosphere retreats." The leaking geologic methane identified by Walter Anthony and hercolleagues comes from such sources as underground coal beds andconventional natural gas reservoirs. Those are fossil fuels thatenergy companies target in drilling operations.
It differs from the methane streaming from decaying plant andanimal matter at the bottom of warming Alaska lakes, a phenomenonthat Walter Anthony has studied for about a decade. Walter Anthony said it is too early to estimate how much methane isleaking from underground reservoirs. The study stems in part from Walter Anthony's observations over thepast few winters of lakes in Arctic Alaska that had large patcheswith no ice, where one could expect to find it. Ultimately, researchers confirmed that underground methane wasventing from two types of sources in Alaska - one of them being 50lakes in the northernmost region, and the other being along theedges of rapidly receding glaciers in southern Alaska. In Greenland, they found methane streaming out of areas where theice sheet had retreated over the past 150 years, Walter Anthonysaid.
Field work, which included aerial surveys, long winter hiking treksand other tasks, took place from 2008 to 2010, according to theuniversity. The discoveries of venting methane from below the earth's surfacecoincide, to some extent, with known petroleum and coal deposits,Walter Anthony said. The first lake where she and her team found underground methane tobe preventing normal winter freezing was near the Inupiat Eskimovillage of Atqasuk in northern Alaska, where locals have long knownabout that area's deep coal deposits and where the village nametranslates to "the place to dig the rock that burns." (Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Mohammad Zargham). I am Office Supplies writer, reports some information about double oven cabinet , 922 ink cartridge.
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