Nature World News
'We're F'd': Methane Plumes Seep From Frozen Ocean Floors
By Brian Stallard
Aug 05, 2014

Researchers surveying the Arctic Ocean's seafloor have discovered something particularly unsettling for many climatologists. Plumes of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, are rising in tiny ominous bubbles from the ocean floor. Why exactly this is happening remains unclear, but initial speculation is tying it to warning temperatures and ice melt.

Researchers from Stokholm University have recently been plowing through the Laptev Sea in the icebreaker ship Oden, closely measuring the air and water around the East Siberian Arctic Ocean.

"The SWERUS-C3 expedition is really well equipped to detect the release of methane," chief scientist Örjan Gustafsson wrote a week into his expedition.

"For 72 hours now, we have been in the thick of extensive investigations of methane releases from the outer Laptev Sea system," he wrote on July 20.... MORE at http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...ean-floors.htm