Excerpt and Photo from thebarentsobserver.com
Researchers from NGI, the University Centre in Svalbard, MARUM and partners have documented hundreds of methane gas seeps across the fjords around Longyearbyen, in an area previously thought to have very few. With Arctic temperatures rising more than seven degrees in 25 years and permafrost increasingly fragmented by taliks, the team is now mapping how a weakening permafrost barrier could open new pathways for methane to escape.
Given that methane has roughly 25 times the greenhouse effect of CO2, even localised seepage matters: in shallow fjord water it can escape directly into the atmosphere, while glacial-forefield springs in Norway already account for around 10% of national energy-sector emissions.