"so much methane belches out of the melting permafrost that it spews out like small geysers"

[RedEarth]

By Alex Rodriguez
Chicago Tribune
Article Launched: 05/04/2008 06:45:19 PM PDT


CHERSKY, Russia — Sergei Zimov waded through knee-deep snow to reach a frozen lake where so much methane belches out of the melting permafrost that it spews out from the ice like small geysers.

In the frigid twilight, the Russian scientist struck a match to make a jet of the greenhouse gas visible. The sudden plume of fire threw him backward. Zimov stood up, brushed the snow off his parka and beamed.

"Sometimes a big explosion happens, because the gas comes out like a bomb," Zimov said. "There are a million lakes like this in northern Siberia."

..........

Few places in the world can provide stark evidence of global warming like the peat bogs, lakes and woodlands that stretch eight time zones along Russia's north Siberian coastline.

Melting permafrost awakens dormant microbes that devour thousands of tons of organic carbon, creating methane as a byproduct if no oxygen is present.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_9153032?source=rss

[slackmaster]

1. Like lighting a gigantic fart

Sounds dangerous.

[AndyTiedye]

2. Can They Harvest the Methane and Use it for Fuel?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. That was my first thought too. (nt)

[NickB79]

4. I'd imagine the ecological effects would be pretty bad

The first image that came to mind was fields of lakes capped over and connected via pipelines to transport the fuel. Then I though of those pipelines crisscrossing the forests for thousands of miles. Ugh.

[izquierdista]

5. That's going to take a lot of plastic wrap

And another problem with Siberia is who is going to use it? Not many people there and the swamps are so widely dispersed that it would be impractical to build a pipeline.

[watrwefitinfor]

6. Posted.

An hour earlier by hatrack. But then, it's hard to see how it could get too much exposure.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x146528