A Spanish scientific team, led by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC) and the Institute of Sea Sciences (ICM-CSIC) travel on January 8 to Antarctica to search and characterize methane gas leaks in the ocean Austral, a result of global climate change that can also influence its acceleration. These leaks are linked to how methane gas deposits respond in solid state to the recoil of glaciers, a phenomenon that will be investigated in the Antarctic Peninsula during the expedition that begins in a few days.
The Iceflame project, which will feature 26 people aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa Oceanographic ship, will collect data from the oceanic background using seismic probes and sediment samples, at depths ranging from 500 to 4,000 meters. The goal is to locate possible methane leaks. It is a greenhouse gas that generates between 20 and 40 times more global warming than carbon dioxide (CO2). It was last accumulated massively in the Antarctic seabed, in the form of ice cream (methane hydrates) during the last glacier period, 20,000 years ago.
The existence of these deposits has been known since the 1990s, when international powers explored possible hydrocarbon deposits in Antarctica. However, so far no one has studied in detail how they are reacting to the glacier setback caused by global warming. It is known that the loss of ice of ice in the continent causes a lifting from the ground. In the marine zone, a decrease in depth, and therefore a reduction in effective pressure on the bottom, facilitates gas leaks. This could affect the stability of the background (geological risks) and have repercussions on the global climate.
Methane hydrates are crystalline solids similar to ice (ice methane). They are formed at high pressures and low temperatures, conditions common to more than 300 meters below sea level in polar areas. However, they point out from Iceflame, these conditions make them very vulnerable to the changes associated with global warming, which raises the temperature of the ocean and causes the lifting of the seabed, thus reducing the pressure. These hydrates, in addition to impacting global warming, affect the stability of marine sediments, to the point that it can cause explosions and great landslides, a geological risk with potential to generate tsunamis.
Roger Urgeles (ICM-CSIC) and Ricardo León (IGME-CSIC) Both main geologists and researchers of the Iceflame project, highlight the importance of their project: «We know of the problems that methane hydrates generate in the Arctic, but no one has investigated in Antarctica as we want to do it now. Only in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula we estimate that there are about 24 gigatons of carbon accumulated in methane hydrates, which is equivalent to the emissions of CO₂ of human origin for two years throughout the planet. And its status is unknown, we do not know if the icy, solid methane is transforming into methane gas. This is what we want to find out in this Antarctic campaign ».
Campaign work
Specifically, for 24 days on board, and during the 24 hours a day, for which they will be organized in three shifts, they will collect data and samples with probes that will allow to know the structure of the sediment of the Antarctic Ocean up to a kilometer deep . It will investigate how these fluids migrate through the subsoil to the seabed and quantify the emissions to the water column. Another objective will be the analysis of the microorganisms that feed on this gas, thus collaborating positively in the reduction of its emissions, as well as its metabolic products.
The complete team, of which Miguel Llorente and Luis Galán del IGME-CSIC are also part of the ICM-CSIC staff, plans to embark on January 12 on the Sarmiento de Gamboa ship, which is already in Antarctica. They will remain on board until February 8. «With Iceflame we want to fill that void in the knowledge about the interaction between methane systems and recent environmental changes in Antarctica. We intend that the results of the project contribute not only to climate science, but also to the understanding of the geological and environmental risks associated with deposits that are known to exist but on which no one has investigated their stability, ”says León.
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