As the human beings warms , methane pin in sparkler beneath the Arctic Ocean is released . Methane is such a powerful glasshouse contributor that if the unfrozen gas reaches the atmosphere , the effects would be catastrophic . Thankfully , the methane in at least one location is being consumed by microorganisms before it can do damage .
climatologist ' greatest fear is of human - get warming triggering feedback loops , leading to the release of even more gas until the job runs beyond Bob Hope of ascendance . Several possible runaway sources have been considered , let in immense fires in the Amazon and the release of carbon copy frozen in the Arctic tundra .
Probably the threat that frightens scientiststhe most , however , is methane in the Arctic Ocean , trapped in ice cage that are vulnerable to melt . Fifty - six million age ago , unknown forces spark off amajor releaseof similar materials , transforming the Earth ’s mood for millions of years .
Past studies have shown some secrete methane is use up by microorganisms before it reaches the open of the ocean , cushion the potential damage . The question of how much methane get through is one of the most important unknowns in climate science and one that has proven very concentrated to answer . Now , Dr Katy Sparrowof Rochester University has provided encouraging news from Prudhoe Bay , northern Alaska .
The carbon in methane is mostly ordinary carbon-12 , but on constitution contains some heavy isotope . immobilise at the bottom of the oceans for millenia , however , carbon-14 undergo radioactive decomposition , contribute old methane from the seafloor a different isotopic signature from gas of recent biologic origin .
InScience Advances , Sparrow reports that the methane in the Prudhoe Bay water pillar indicate the surface methane is almost all new . The ancient material free from the seafloor is not touch the billet where it could be dangerous .
Sparrow tell IFLScience that her team “ make no attempt to upscale our findings to other areas of the Arctic , ” and similar studies are needed elsewhere . Their site also has no known methane seeps , unlike thosecausing alarmin other voice of the Arctic . Nevertheless , the fact the Bay is quite shallow and yet the ancient methane Sparrow find near the seafloor is not reaching surface waters presents an supporting sign for the deep location .
Sparrow also confirmed to IFLScience that , despite different methodology , her work is ordered with a studypublishedlast year that found that seafloor methane is not only not get to the surface , but is stimulating the drawdown of atmospheric C dioxide .
Fellow Rochester researcher , Vasilii Petrenko , recently reportedthat during the last big thaw event , most methane come from wetlands rather than the Arctic seafloor , in keeping with Sparrow ’s work .
The fight to stop calamitous climate alteration still appear in our hands .
