Extensive Methane Venting to the Atmosphere from Sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

Abstract

Bubble, Bubble, Warming and Trouble: Vast quantities of methane are stored in ocean sediments, mostly in the form of clathrates, but methane is also trapped in submerged terrestrial permafrost that was flooded during the last deglaciation. There is thus concern that climate warming could warm ocean waters enough to release methane cryogenically trapped beneath the seabed, causing even more warming. Shakova et al. (p. 1246 ; see the Perspective by Heimann ) report that more than 80% of the bottom water, and more than 50% of the surface water, over the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, is indeed supersaturated with methane that is being released from the sub-sea permafrost, and that the flux to the atmosphere now is as great as previous estimates of that from the entire world ocean.