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Posted Mon Aug 17 2009: from New Scientist:
As Arctic Ocean warms, megatonnes of methane bubble up http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1250533126
It's been predicted for years, and now it's happening. Deep in the Arctic Ocean, water warmed by climate change is forcing the release of methane from beneath the sea floor. Over 250 plumes of gas have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor to the west of the Svalbard archipelago, which lies north of Norway. The bubbles are mostly methane, which is a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide.... "Hydrates are stable only within a particular range of temperatures," says Minshull. "So if the ocean warms, some of the hydrates will break down and release their methane."... Just because it fails to reach the surface doesn't mean the methane is harmless, though, as some of it gets converted to carbon dioxide. The CO2 then dissolves in seawater and makes the oceans more acidic.
[Read more stories about: holyshit, death spiral, ocean methane, ocean warming, ocean acidification]
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'Doc Jim says:
The worst-case scenario regarding really rapid greenhouse effects...? We may have to revise it.

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