Methane

[unixronin]

New reports indicate that undersea methane clathrate beds off the coast of Siberia are collapsing.  In places methane is being released so fast that it doesn't have time to dissolve, but is bubbling to the surface in columns.  Millions of tons of methane are being released into the atmosphere, and methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.  The amount of methane observed being released from the Siberian continental shelf may be as great as the previous estimated total methane release rate from all the world's oceans combined.

So who else has read John Barnes' Mother of Storms?  A massive collapse of clathrate beds was his starting scenario...

Comments

This may be part of something bigger..

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dansgaard-Oeschger_events

A rapid rise in Greenland(Arctic) of 8 degrees C in less than 40 years, followed by prolonged cool downs with a periodicity of ~ 1500 years +/- 500.

Re: This may be part of something bigger..

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Interesting ....