What do Arctic methane bursts mean? What impacts will it have?

The Arctic methane burst refers to the fact that the permafrost in the entire Arctic region is melting rapidly, and lakes formed by ice water are everywhere, with methane bubbling out of the lakes. Recently, the Arctic methane explosion has also become a hot topic. So, what do Arctic methane bursts mean? What impacts will it bring?

1. What does the Arctic methane explosion mean?

1. Food shortage

We know that our rainy season and dry season are mainly caused by changes in ocean currents, and agriculture in most areas relies on this phenomenon to grow crops. If a large amount of methane is released in the Arctic, the greenhouse effect may cause the global climate to get out of control and humans will face the risk of food shortages.

2. Virus outbreak

Furthermore, the permafrost may contain viruses. We know that there may be remains of living things under the glaciers. For example, scientists have excavated a 42,000-year-old foal and a 100,000-year-old mammoth from the permafrost. In addition, scientists have extracted viruses from the remains of some organisms.

Although the Spanish flu has disappeared from the human world for nearly 100 years, scientists have extracted the virus from human remains in the permafrost.

3. Threat to human health

If global warming causes permafrost and glaciers to melt, these viruses may flow into local ecosystems along with meltwater from ice and snow, potentially threatening the health of organisms and even humans.

2. What impacts will the Arctic methane explosion bring?

1. It causes global warming

When we talk about greenhouse gases, we usually think of carbon dioxide, but did you know? Methane is also a greenhouse gas. In 2018, the United States used comprehensive data obtained from the South Great Plains Observatory in Oklahoma to prove for the first time that methane may also aggravate the greenhouse effect on the earth. Moreover, the greenhouse effect caused by methane is 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

It is understood that the Arctic is a natural methane reservoir. There is a large amount of methane under the glaciers and permafrost. This methane may be produced by the decomposition of microorganisms after the death of previous vegetation.

Due to the low temperature in the Arctic, methane can combine with water to form solid methane ice. The amount of methane ice stored in solid form is 164 times that of gas in the same volume.

2. Affected areas

This dramatic warming is not limited to the Arctic Ocean region, but extends to the surrounding snowfields, ice fields and permafrost, deep into much of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Scandinavia. In 2007, temperatures in northern North America rose by about 2°C above the average for 1951-1980, and parts of Siberia rose by more than 3°C.

Hundreds of metres of permafrost are at risk of melting – the Arctic is not just a fragile mirror but also a vast repository of carbon and methane, greenhouse gases locked up in the frozen soil or buried in ice structures beneath the seabed.

The real concern, however, is the organic carbon contained in the permafrost, in the form of plants and animals that died long ago. For example, the bizarre woolly mammoth has been frozen for tens of thousands of years. When the permafrost thaws, much of that carbon is likely to be released into the atmosphere.