Scientists working in one of the world’s fastest warming places found that rapidly retreating glaciers are triggering the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes global temperatures to rise, into the atmosphere.
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The releases are prompted as glaciers across the archipelago of Svalbard, in Norway, rapidly retreat and leave behind newly exposed land, scientists found. If the phenomenon is found to be more widespread across the Arctic — where temperatures are quickly rising and glaciers melting — the emissions could have global implications.
As the Svalbard glaciers move and land is left behind, groundwater beneath the Earth seeps upward and forms springs — and in 122 out of 123 of them, the scientists found, the water is filled with apparently ancient methane gas, at very high concentrations that bubble upward under pressure. The amount of emissions these springs are emitting are not well-quantified right now.
Methane bubbles up from glacial melt
0:07
Video taken in the summer of August 2021 shows methane bubbling up from glacial melt waters in Svalbard. (Video: Gabrielle Kleber)
“This is a feedback loop that’s caused by climate change,” said Gabrielle Kleber, the study’s lead author and a scientist based at the University of Cambridge and the University Centre in Svalbard. “Glaciers are retreating due to climate warming and they are leaving these exposed forefields behind, which are encouraging methane gas to be released.”
Most concerning is the apparent age of the methane — the fact that it appears to be very old suggests it could be coming from very large underground reservoirs with the potential to unleash a lot of gas. The researchers found that the most intense gas flows occurred in regions featuring underground shale layers that are millions of years old.
“It’s not methane being produced contemporarily by microbes, it’s methane that was created when the rocks were formed,” said Kleber.
This implies that the gas has been sequestered for long periods in ancient deposits of fossil fuels, principally natural gas and coal — but that something has recently removed what scientists call a “cryospheric cap,” once provided by glaciers or permafrost. It kept a lid on the methane, and its removal allowed the once stable gas to escape upward. Svalbard is widely known to be rich in fossil fuels — the largest settlement, Longyearbyen, was originally established as a coal-mining town.
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Scientists said the current phenomenon could certainly be happening in many places other than Svalbard, potentially adding another adding another accelerator of warming in the Arctic.
“Shale is Earth’s most abundant rock and there’s plenty of it in the Arctic (or rocks like it),” said Andy Hodson, a co-author of the study and also a scientist at Norway’s University Centre in Svalbard.
The study was published on Thursday in Nature Geoscience by Kleber, Hodson, and colleagues based at universities in Norway, Canada, and the UK. The scientists studied 78 different Svalbard glaciers that are based on land in the course of their research — and several additional glaciers that stretch all the way into the ocean.
If the current methane releases represent a new phenomenon tied to the warming of the planet, Svalbard is an appropriate place for it. The string of islands has seen extraordinary warming and strong retreat of glaciers as a result. Svalbard has warmed dramatically since 1976, based on temperature measurements taken at the Svalbard airport near Longyearbyen.
Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
The releases are prompted as glaciers across the archipelago of Svalbard, in Norway, rapidly retreat and leave behind newly exposed land, scientists found. If the phenomenon is found to be more widespread across the Arctic — where temperatures are quickly rising and glaciers melting — the emissions could have global implications.
As the Svalbard glaciers move and land is left behind, groundwater beneath the Earth seeps upward and forms springs — and in 122 out of 123 of them, the scientists found, the water is filled with apparently ancient methane gas, at very high concentrations that bubble upward under pressure. The amount of emissions these springs are emitting are not well-quantified right now.
Methane bubbles up from glacial melt
0:07
Video taken in the summer of August 2021 shows methane bubbling up from glacial melt waters in Svalbard. (Video: Gabrielle Kleber)
“This is a feedback loop that’s caused by climate change,” said Gabrielle Kleber, the study’s lead author and a scientist based at the University of Cambridge and the University Centre in Svalbard. “Glaciers are retreating due to climate warming and they are leaving these exposed forefields behind, which are encouraging methane gas to be released.”
Most concerning is the apparent age of the methane — the fact that it appears to be very old suggests it could be coming from very large underground reservoirs with the potential to unleash a lot of gas. The researchers found that the most intense gas flows occurred in regions featuring underground shale layers that are millions of years old.
“It’s not methane being produced contemporarily by microbes, it’s methane that was created when the rocks were formed,” said Kleber.
This implies that the gas has been sequestered for long periods in ancient deposits of fossil fuels, principally natural gas and coal — but that something has recently removed what scientists call a “cryospheric cap,” once provided by glaciers or permafrost. It kept a lid on the methane, and its removal allowed the once stable gas to escape upward. Svalbard is widely known to be rich in fossil fuels — the largest settlement, Longyearbyen, was originally established as a coal-mining town.
ADVERTISING
Scientists said the current phenomenon could certainly be happening in many places other than Svalbard, potentially adding another adding another accelerator of warming in the Arctic.
“Shale is Earth’s most abundant rock and there’s plenty of it in the Arctic (or rocks like it),” said Andy Hodson, a co-author of the study and also a scientist at Norway’s University Centre in Svalbard.
The study was published on Thursday in Nature Geoscience by Kleber, Hodson, and colleagues based at universities in Norway, Canada, and the UK. The scientists studied 78 different Svalbard glaciers that are based on land in the course of their research — and several additional glaciers that stretch all the way into the ocean.
If the current methane releases represent a new phenomenon tied to the warming of the planet, Svalbard is an appropriate place for it. The string of islands has seen extraordinary warming and strong retreat of glaciers as a result. Svalbard has warmed dramatically since 1976, based on temperature measurements taken at the Svalbard airport near Longyearbyen.
