Underwater permafrost, melted by the warming Arctic Ocean, has released the biggest methane gas fountain ever recorded, according to a team of Russian and international scientists. They said the concentration of methane in the air east of Bennett Island in the East Siberian Sea was up to 16 ppm, over nine times the atmospheric average. A Russian study recently revealed that underwater permafrost thaw in the region had doubled in annual to an the past 30 years 18 cm, with consequences including cracks in buildings and pipelines and disruption to agriculture.
Underwater permafrost, melted by the warming Arctic Ocean, has released the biggest methane gas fountain ever recorded, according to a team of Russian and international scientists. They said the concentration of methane in the air east of Bennett Island in the East Siberian Sea was up to 16 ppm, over nine times the atmospheric average. A Russian study recently revealed that underwater permafrost thaw in the region had doubled in the past 30 years to an annual 18 cm, with consequences including cracks in buildings and pipelines and disruption to agriculture.