For
those of us living in NZ who see this series of graphs you will
notice high levels of methane over both the North and South Island.
Methane is the pirate that has taken control of our ship's helm now.
As
we come ever closer to climate change disaster we look around at the
culprits. Our main focus is the burning of fossil fuels to run our
post industrial revolution society's. Like most people I blamed
carbon but the new elephant in the room
(the cow) is methane.
In NZ our
major green house gas is methane generated from livestock. Getting
the majority of people to stop eating meat will be impossible until
the food chain collapses and meat becomes so expensive that like most
people in Africa no one will be able to afford it.
Methane is between
40 and 100 times more potent a green house gas than carbon. It was
the main culprit in the permian extinction and will be the same again
in this one. We willfully release methane into the atmosphere knowing
full well what it is doing, heating the atmosphere and the oceans,
melting the sea ice and polar ice caps releasing more methane
hydrates from the ocean floor and sequestered methane from the
permafrost where it has languished for millions of years.
Our species
walks knowingly over the cliff like the much ridiculed lemmings
---Kevin
Hester
Methane
emissions over New Zealand
Comparison
between CO2 (left) and methane (right) indicate that large amounts of
methane are broken down at higher latitudes on the Northern
Hemisphere, especially over the Arctic Ocean.
I suspect this might also have something to do with the levels of methane above New Zealand
This is #35 of positive feedbacks identified by Guy McPherson.
Hidden
network of methane found on East Coast
12
May, 2014
The
vast deposit has been revealed by Kiwi and German scientists using
state-of-the-art 3D seismic and echosounder technology to map methane
within the ocean and seafloor.
NIWA
marine geologist and voyage leader Dr Joshu Mountjoy said the number
of gas flares observed beneath the ocean was "phenomenal".
More
than 100 flares, some shooting up columns more than 250m high, were
found in an area of only 50km2, in what is now believed to be the
densest concentration of seafloor gas vents so far known in New
Zealand.
"What
we've found probably equals the number of known underwater seeps in
New Zealand to date," Dr Mountjoy said.
Dr
Mountjoy said the four-week expedition sought to understand what was
triggering huge underwater landslides off the East Coast, some which
had been as large as 15km long and 100m thick.
What
they discovered was direct evidence of widespread gas in the sediment
and ocean, and indications of large areas of methane hydrate,
ice-like frozen methane below the seafloor.
They
also found a hydrate and gas field very different from others known
in New Zealand.
"Previously
all gas venting sites have been in deeper water and associated with
large earthquake faults," Dr Mountjoy said.
"What
we have found is high density methane flares in very shallow water,
as well as gas building up beneath a large landslide and being
released along the landslide margins."
In
a newly submitted scientific paper, the research team proposed that
these landslides might be the seafloor equivalent of glaciers, but
with frozen methane instead of water ice, or that pressurised gas was
causing them to progressively move downslope.
The
findings of the expedition indicated that both could be
possibilities, but also gave an important insight into just how much
methane lurked close to our shores.
Dr
Mountjoy said methane was a highly effective greenhouse gas and
seabed methane release has the potential to dramatically alter the
earth's climate.
As
ocean temperatures changed, the methane hydrate system had the
potential to become unstable.
"In
terms of natural hazards, the occurrence of very large slow
landslides, rather than catastrophic ones, has major implications for
the tsunami generating potential of landslides globally as slow
landslides are unlikely to cause tsunami," he said.
"This
type of slow moving submarine landslide is essentially unknown around
the world, but it is very likely that they do occur widely and are an
important process shaping continental margins."
It
was too early to say whether the methane deposits could prove an
economic resource for the country.
Dr
Mountjoy said the newfound gas were not coming from deep within the
earth's surface or connected to any large reservoirs with commercial
potential.
But
researchers in Japan were investigating how frozen methane could be
converted back into a gas as a potential hydrocarbon resource.
The
expedition forms the first part of a collaborative project between
scientists from New Zealand, Germany, the United States and Malta,
and another is planned for 2016.
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