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Buried beneath the oceans surrounding the continents is a frozen form of methane and water. Sometimes referred to as “fire ice” because it can light up, ocean methane gas can melt as the climate warms, releasing the methane. – a powerful greenhouse gas – in the ocean and possibly the atmosphere.
We just shared it with our colleagues research shows that much of this methane hydrate is easier to heat than previously thought. This is a concern because liquid water contains as much carbon as all the remaining oil and gas in the world.
Release from the ocean floor may cause more sea level rise and a warmer climate. This is a dangerous set of circumstances.
The release of methane from ancient marine reservoirs has been linked to some of the most extreme climate changes in Earth’s history. There is also evidence that the system has restarted near the east coast of the US.
For more than ten years I have been working with liquids, I often see methane hydrate off Mauritania, West Africa. Recently I took 3D seismic data that was intended to reveal oil and gas and then used it to map the water under the sea floor. Finally, I wanted to find out if climate change is causing methane to float up.
3D seismic is a doctor’s examination similar to a CT scan. They can cover hundreds of square kilometers, and fluids can be exposed several kilometers below the seabed. Water can be easily detected in these large probes because the sound waves caused by a source of gravitational force pulled by a ship reflect off the bottom of the water. water composting.
Search for methane using 3D laser imaging
As I settled into a new way of life during the first COVID lockdown at the beginning of 2020, I reopened a lot of research data and started mapping again. I knew that there were many samples of water that had evaporated as a result of warming since the last glacial period up to 20,000 years ago, and I knew that we could see this on the record. 3D.
But what is the fate of methane? Did it reach the sea and the environment? Because if it happens, this is a big statement that can happen again.
Around the continents, where the sea is shallow, only the cold water keeps the ice. This is very harmful to any warmth, and this is why these areas have become the focus of many scientific studies.
The good news is that only 3.5% of the world’s water is in the weak zone, in this uncertain situation. Most of the sea water is considered “safe”, buried hundreds of meters below the seabed in deep seas ten kilometers from the land.
But methane ice in the deep ocean can be harmful. In oceans and seas where the water is deeper than 450 meters to 700 meters above the base of the soil there is water. And some of them are buried deep and heated geothermally by the Earth, although hundreds of meters below the sea, it is right at the point of uncertainty.
Some soil erosion can be concentrated and create a complex underground plume for gas to escape when it is released during warming. the price It’s like holding a football methane gas under water that wants to push up because of its energy and explode within 100s of meters of sediment.
Superimposed on this complex map are seven glacials (or ice ages) and interstellar deposits, which have warmed and cooled the system over the past million years.
Methane has migrated
During the first recording of 2020, I found some interesting evidence that, during warm periods in the last million or so years, methane migrated to the edge, upwards and towards Africa. and flows into shallow waters. Beneath an area of up to 80 meters of soil there are 23 large craters in the ancient seabed, one kilometer wide and up to 50 meters deep, large enough to filled most of the stadiums at Wembley.
Seismic sampling shows signs of methane just below the crater. And also pit formations in other places due to the prolonged or explosive release of gas in the seabed.
These holes are not in the weak zone that everyone has been focusing on – they are going onshore in about 330 meters of water depth. With the discovery in hand, I gathered an international group of scientists (eg, physicists, geoscientists) to study why these wonders were formed and when they were formed. Our results are now published internally Nature Geoscience.
We believe they did so as a result of persistent warm weather. These periods affected the water in the deep ocean and the released methane traveled 40 km towards the continent, cooling beyond the shallow water. So during global warming, the amount of water that will be affected by the flow of methane is more important than previously thought.
The best view is that there are many natural bars in this methane. But be warned, we expect that in some places on earth, as we warm the planet, methane from the depths will flow into our oceans.
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Richard DaviesPro-Vice Chancellor: Global and Sustainability, University of Newcastle
This article has been republished The Conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the original text.