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Thursday, December 21, 2006 'Big Burps' of Seafloor Methane Probably Had Little to do with Large Methane Concentration Increases During Abrupt Climate Change Research never before attempted indicates that wetlands and plants probably explain spikes of methane associated with rapid global warming Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego  Vas Petrenko of Scripps Oceanography (background, near tent) and his colleagues extracted glacial ice from the edge of the Greenland ice sheet. Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases. Measurements of 14C concentrations in the gas can tell scientists how a sample of methane originated but the difficulty of applying the procedure to ancient air samples had long dissuaded researchers from attempting it. Over the course of five years, Vas Petrenko of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and his colleagues collected glacial ice from the edge of the Greenland ice sheet that formed around the times of two abrupt climate change events that took place 11,600 years ago and 14,500 years ago. They extracted the ancient air trapped inside bubbles in the ice to analyze the methane they contained.  Professor Jeff Severinghaus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Every ton of glacial ice the team melted down yielded only about 20 micrograms of ancient methane, a sample size typically too small for 14C analysis. The tiny sample sizes they had to work with required that the team push the boundaries of 14C measurement procedures. But the arduous task was necessary because of the great potential of 14C to identify methane that came from seafloor sediments. The planet's seafloors bear vast repositories of frozen methane in icelike structures called clathrates. Methane from this source contains no 14C whereas wetland methane contains abundant 14C. The team discovered that the ancient methane contained too much 14C to have a significant part of it come from clathrates.  Members of the research team deployed scientific instruments in Greenland in June 2005. Instead, said Petrenko, the results suggest that the warmer, wetter conditions associated with the two abrupt climate change events resulted in more methane being produced by wetlands and plants. In addition, the 14C levels in the ancient methane were so high, ranging from 28 to 35 percent of modern carbon, that they could not be explained by biological methane production alone. The team concluded that some of the 14C in the methane must have originated in the nuclear reactions that take place as cosmic rays bombard glacial ice. This is a new phenomenon that has never previously been observed, Petrenko said. # # # Note to broadcast and cable producers: University of California, San Diego provides an on-campus satellite uplink facility for live or pre-recorded television interviews. Please phone or e-mail the media contact listed above to arrange an interview. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. |
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