Climate security

Greenland Has Yet Another Methane Leak

With concerns about the warming Arctic already at an all-time high, scientists are beginning to investigate a potential side effect of melting glaciers. Research suggests the thawing ice could be a source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Two separate studies published in November identified sites in Greenland and Iceland that seemed to be emitting methane into the air (Climatewire, Nov. 26, 2018). Now a third study, published yesterday in Nature, adds another site to the list.

Scientists have rarely observed methane escaping from glaciers in real time. Although the recent studies focused on isolated locations and don't necessarily indicate that the same effects are occurring everywhere, the research opens up the possibility that melting glaciers may be an underestimated source of methane.

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.