A new crater has been blasted into the Siberian tundra by the violent release of a massive pocket of methane gas that had accumulated beneath the surface of the earth. While the massive 165-foot hole is not the first to have been found to have been formed in this manner, it is one of the first to have a witness to the explosion that created it.
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The continued thawing of Arctic permafrost is causing the accelerated release of previously-trapped methane deposits, as evidenced by both satellite imagery and findings made by field researchers in Siberia. Accumulated after having been produced by biological activity, these methane deposits have been frozen in the permafrost for millennia and are being released as the Arctic steadily warms due to climate change.
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Despite the retreat of Arctic sea ice not being as pronounced so far this summer as it has been in previous years, a massive heat wave is forecast to move over the Arctic soon, threatening to hasten this season’s ice melt.
According to emerging threats expert and sea ice analyst Robertscribbler, a combination of the heat from this year’s building El Niño being carried further north by the circumpolar jetstream, and a high-pressure system building over Greenland, are forecast to provide higher than normal temperatures, threatening to increase the rate of sea ice melt in the north.
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Over the past few months, Arctic reporting stations have been reporting an unexpected increase in the outgassing of methane from thawing permafrost. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. In the past, the sudden release of methane from arctic tundras and methane hydrates under the Arctic Ocean have been connected to the spikes in heat that mark the end of interglacials. Methane readings from the station in Alert, Canada, are showing an increase in methane of 20 parts per billion over one year, an increase of 2-3 times over the global average from the past five years, and readings from Barrow (Alaska), Summit (Greenland), and Svalbard (Norway) all show similar trends.
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