Paul Beckwith on methane clathrates in Siberia

Bubble, Bubble, GigaTons of Methane Trouble

Paul Beckwith,

28 June, 2017

Vast amounts of methane exists within ocean floor sediments on the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf, in the form of methane hydrates & free methane gas.

        

Up to recently, gas release to the shallow water column (50 meters deep) and atmosphere has been slow, with the subsea permafrost acting as a million corks on a million champagne bottles to contain the methane.

      

Now, rapid thawing of the permafrost has released 10% of the corks, allowing rapid ongoing increases in methane release.

This video, put together by Torstein Viddal, combines the three videos into one