Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
05/22/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Study indicates that the gas causing the greenhouse effect, that was for millennia inside the Arctic is being released into the atmosphere
Methane that was trapped for millennia inside the Arctic is being expelled into the atmosphere because of the melting polar ice, according to U.S. scientists.
In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) said they have identified thousands of Arctic areas where methane that was trapped under the ice is able to escape as it melts.
This can have a significant impact on global climate change, they say.
Methane gas is the second most greenhouse gas after CO2, and their levels are rising after several years of stability.
Molecules
The sources of gas are difficult to be measured, since their sources are different - for example, decomposition of waste and livestock.
But researchers in the Arctic project, led by Katey Walter Anthony, found that the gas in the region was long retained by the amount of different isotopes of carbon in methane molecules.
From aerial surveys and field, the team identified 150 thousand points of methane in Alaska and Greenland lakes lined with ice.
Local samples show that some of these points are releasing methane old, possibly from natural gas deposits or coal under the lake. Other areas are expelling gas later, possibly formed from the decomposition of plants in lakes.
According to the study, this phenomenon can happen in other regions where sedimentary basins are covered by permafrost (called permafrost), by glaciers or ice sheets rich in gas. One area where this can occur is the western Siberia.
If the melting occurs substantially by 2100, "the result will be a large increase in the methane cycle, with potential implications for global warming."
More rapid heating
The quantification of the release of methane in the Arctic is a burgeoning area of research, as several countries are sending missions to monitor the land and seas of the region.
"The Arctic is the region of the planet that heats up faster and has many sources of methane that can increase (issue) as the temperature rises," said Euan Nisbet, a professor and researcher of methane in the Arctic to the University of London .
"And this is another serious concern: global warming causes more warming."
The seriousness of the threat and the urgency of the situation identified in the Arctic are controversial - some scientists say they believe that their impacts will not be realized for many decades, while others warn of the possibility of a rapid acceleration of global warming process.
Source: Ig News
Our news are taken in full of our partner sites. For this reason, we can not change the content of these up in case of typing errors.
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.