BBC: Scientists say they have evidence that the powerful greenhouse gas methane is escaping from the Arctic sea-bed. Researchers say this could be evidence of a predicted positive feedback effect of climate change.
As temperatures rise, the sea-bed grows warmer and frozen water crystals in the sediment break down, allowing methane trapped inside them to escape. The research team found that more than 250 plumes of methane bubbles are rising from the sea-bed off Norway...
The research was carried out as part of the International Polar Year Initiative, funded by Britain's Environment Research Council (Nerc). The team say this is the first time that this loss of stability associated with temperature rise has been observed during the current geological period.
Professor Tim Minshull of the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton told BBC News: 'We already knew there was some methane hydrate in the ocean off Spitzbergen and that's an area where climate change is happening rather faster than just about anywhere else in the world.'
