CH4

Science Round-up: Underground River Found, Ancient Microbes, Early Mammals & A Mass-Killing Methane 'Burp'

My August 2011 Science news roundup: An underground river flowing two miles beneath the Amazon River has been detected; ancient microbes may have been found in 3.46 billion year old Australian sandstone bed (also: a fossil of the earliest mammalian ancestor has been found in China) ; a dinosaur era mass extinction of marine life has been attributed to a massive methane gas release.

Newest Gulf Report: Oil, Soot and Dead Animals on Sea Floor

Reporting her results from a fifth Gulf of Mexico expedition ending this past December,  University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha Joye has been to the bottom and back, and her findings are anything but optimistic. Her team has found numerous expanses of oil and soot covered sea floor that were “chemically finger-printed” as deriving from

Methane: The 'Sleeper' Agent of Climate Change

Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, and is the result of natural decomposition processes. Although its lifetime in the atmosphere as a free gas is much shorter than CO2, it is 23 times more potent in terms of its heat trapping ability. This past month, there has been a flurry of news,

Extensive Release of Methane Gas from Arctic Shelf Confirmed

A research team confirms “extensive out-gassing of methane to the atmosphere” over the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf, and confirm its source to be venting from sea-bed sediments. Though acknowledging their findings do not seriously alter climate change predictions, the team also asserts that the sub-sea permafrost layer is failing and advise more urgent investigation.

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