UK Scientists Discover Another Greenland Glacier That's Become A Methane Source

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An international team of researchers, led by Guillaume Lamarche-Gagnon of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, found methane bubbling from the meltwater produced by Leverett Glacier in western Greenland—a site associated with a 200-square-mile mass of ice on the Greenland ice sheet. During the summer of 2015, they estimate it released around 6 metric tons of methane into the air. That's small compared with other sites. One of the November studies focused on Sólheimajökull Glacier in Iceland; it found that about 40 tons of methane leak out every day.

Yesterday's study adds to the evidence that methane leaks are occurring in previously unidentified places. And it adds to the possible concern that as ice melt accelerates under future climate change, more methane may be released. Thawing is already speeding up in West Greenland, where the new study was conducted.

The study provides "an example of how our planet's icy domains can interact with the surrounding Earth system in unexpected and potentially important ways," NASA researcher Lauren Andrews wrote in a comment on the new study, also published yesterday in Nature. Like the two November studies, the new research suggests that methane is likely being produced by tiny microbes underneath the ice.

These microorganisms chow down on carbon trapped beneath the glaciers—some of which may have been stored there, in the remains of long-dead plants or animals, for centuries or longer—and release methane in the process. This methane then dissolves into the liquid water that pools beneath the melting glacier. The water eventually flows out from the glacier, releasing some of the methane as it comes into contact with the outside air.

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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/greenland-has-yet-another-methane-leak/