Retreat of the (Barents Sea) ice (sheet, ~20,000 years ago) followed by millennia of methane release

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://cage.uit.no/news/retreat-of-the-ice-followed-by-millennia-of-methane-release/

[font face=Serif]13/05/2016
[font size=5]Retreat of the ice followed by millennia of methane release[/font]

[font size=4]Methane was seeping from the seafloor for thousands of years following the retreat of the Barents Sea ice sheet, shows a groundbreaking new study in Nature Communications. [/font]

[font size=3]Text:Maja Sojtaric

Scientists have calculated that the present day ice sheets keep vast amounts of climate gas methane in check. Ice sheets are heavy and cold, providing pressure and temperatures that contain methane in form of ice-like substance called gas hydrate. If the ice sheets retreat the weight of the ice will be lifted from the ocean floor, the gas hydrates will be destabilised and the methane will be released.

Studies conducted at CAGE have previously shown that ice sheets and methane hydrates are closely connected, and that release of methane from the seafloor has followed the retreat of the Barents Sea ice sheet some 20 000 years ago. But is all such release of the potent climate gas bound to be catastrophic?

Not necessarily, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. It shows that the methane was indeed released as the ice sheets retreated. However the seepage did not occur in one major pulse, but over a period of 7000 to 10000 years following the initial release.

“The release was too slow to significantly impact the concentration of methane in the atmosphere.” says researcher and project leader Aivo Lepland at Norwegian geological Survey (NGU) and CAGE.This may help explain why we have yet to discover a signal for such events in the various climate records of the past.

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[truebrit71]

1. I have a feeling it won't be released over 7000 years this time...

...

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Why?

Or, is it just a hunch?

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160511/ncomms11509/full/ncomms11509.html

[font face=Serif][font size=3]… Abrupt, globally synchronous methane release over a timescale of 10² years from deglaciated shelf areas with grounded ice appears unlikely given the protracted nature of hydrate-derived methane efflux after the LGM, as our findings from the southwest Barents Sea indicate, as well as the asynchronous deglaciation of different shelf areas.

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[truebrit71]

3. Just a hunch. I think once the ice melts things will heat up much more quickly...

...and that would then speed up the release of the methane...

I could be totally wrong, but up to this point the phrase "quicker than expected", or "sooner than we anticipated" are becoming commonplace when talking about climate change events...

[6chars]

4. can we just build a giant freezer to keep it in place?

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. No.

But, thanks for playing our game!

[6chars]

6. I've got a.better idea

Set up natural gas companies to capture the methane as it is released or before, and just use it as fuel. No worse in terms of co2 than other natural gas, right? But keeps thestronfer greenhouse gas out of circulation.

And if greed is associated with capturing the methane we can be sure so much will be captured that businesses will complain about the methane shortage.