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Due to global warming and climate (environment) change, not only the atmosphere but also the oceans are in great danger. Right now the world is seeing the ill effects of climate change in the atmosphere itself, but the way climate change is affecting the oceans, the situation may get worse. In a recent study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists have detected a very big danger. They have found that methane frozen in the deep oceans, also known as ice fire, is coming from the continental slope of the continental shelf to its shores, which will later prove to be a time bomb.
danger of reaching the atmosphere
The worrying thing in this case is that researchers have even found out that this part has shifted by 40 kilometers, which means that there is a danger of more methane reaching the atmosphere because due to climate change, the oceans are becoming warmer. Are. If methane reaches the atmosphere in such large quantities, it can heat the atmosphere a lot.
What is snow fire?
Methane hydrate itself is called fire ice. Its structure is like ice, which is buried in the bottom of the deep oceans. Such methane is accumulated in large quantities at the bottom of the oceans. When the oceans heat up, it starts melting and after coming up and mixing in the atmosphere, it contributes to global warming.
Scientists used advanced three-dimensional seismic imaging techniques to investigate hydrate dissociation caused by climate change-induced warming off the coast of Mauritius, northwest Africa. They also found a case where the methane being separated had come 40 kilometers further towards the shore. And during the last hot period, these were emerging from under water, which are called pockmarks.
Professor Richard Davis of Newcastle University said that he had discovered 23 pockmarks in the area during the Covid lockdown. His investigation showed that they were formed due to the continental slope of the ocean in this area. Earlier scientists thought that climate warming would have no effect on this hydrate, but this study has shown that this is not so.
Why is this discovery important?
This is considered an important discovery. Till now, this research had focused only on the shallow part of the hydrate stability zone because researchers felt that only this part was sensitive to climate variations. New data show that very large amounts of methane may be released and that there is a need to better understand the role of hydrate in climate systems
Methane is the world’s most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency show that methane accounts for 16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The results of this study can help us deal with and predict the impact of methane on our changing climate.
