Study finds permafrost thaw, glacier melt releasing methane

Methane from underground reservoirs is streaming from thawing permafrost and receding glaciers, contributing to the greenhouse gas load in the atmosphere, a study led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has found.

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first to document leakage of deep geologic methane from warming permafrost and receding glaciers.

Release of methane into the atmosphere from any source is troubling because methane has far more potent greenhouse powers than carbon dioxide, climate scientists say. Methane has more than 20 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide.

Scientists have speculated about such methane releases and modelling has predicted that it would happen as the cryosphere—the earth’s layer of ice and frozen ground— softens and melts.

The leaking geologic methane comes from such sources as underground coal beds and conventional natural gas reservoirs. Those are fossil fuels that energy companies target in drilling operations.It, however, differs from the methane streaming from decaying plant and animal matter at the bottom of warming Alaska lakes.