Bubbling Methan Craters in the Ocean Worry Scientists

A team of 69 scientists from ten countries have documented bubble clouds rising from a depth of around 300 metres along a 150km undersea slope in the Laptev Sea, and confirmed high methane concentrations by hundreds of onboard chemical analysis, according to the Siberian Times.

A second discovery is pockmarks and craters sunk deep in shelf sediments of both the Laptev and East Siberian seas, actively venting bubbles and strong methane signals. 

The expedition mapped over 1,000 large seep fields (areas of massive methane discharge over 100 metres) and mega seep fields, each over 1,000 metres in linear dimension. 

Six mega seeps were registered in both the Laptev and the East Siberian seas in what the scientists described as ‘the first comprehensive observation of active release from methane hydrates on the Siberian-Arctic slope system’.