Hundreds of groundwater springs have emerged in the Arctic, and scientists are concerned that they are releasing large amounts of ancient methane into the atmosphere. The sources are reportedly exposed by the retreat of glaciers on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge believe the methane is millions of years old, released from a large underground gas reserve. This indicates that many greenhouse gases can still be released into the atmosphere – something that is not accounted for in current climate models.

This isn’t the first time scientists have discovered that water releases methane. Indeed, there are lakes in Alaska that can be set on fire. They are called thermokarsts and appear during the thawing of permafrost. In the case of thermokarsts, however, the methane comes from microbes that grow in the meltwater. Scientists believe the methane gas in Svalbard’s springs came from elsewhere.

Between 2021 and 2022, researchers extracted water from 123 springs in Svalbard. They found highly concentrated methane in 122 of them. Their analysis shows that this methane comes from gas reserves released from shale rocks underlying glaciers. Findings published Nature Geology.

“We identified this previously unknown source of methane in the Arctic,” said Gabrielle Kleber, a scientist at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study. There are so many gases in the welds that scientists have managed to ignite them with a single match. And it’s really shocking.

Glaciers acted as plugs to trap methane in ancient rocks. As their weight lifted from the rock, methane trapped deep in the ground rose to the surface.

“We have a very large reservoir of organic carbon, with twice the amount of carbon present in the atmosphere trapped under Arctic glaciers and permafrost,” Kleber said.

“If these groundwater sources enter this reservoir, they have what seems like an endless supply of methane. If they can grow in number, if they can grow in size, they can continue to release more methane into the atmosphere,” he said.

The researchers estimate that sources in the archipelago alone can emit about 2,000 tons of methane annually.

Today this is a drop in the global sea of ​​emissions. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2021 alone, the global agriculture industry released about 141 megatons of methane.

“We suspect there are large regions in the Arctic where a similar phenomenon could be observed. So emissions could be significant,” said Kleber.

Methane emissions have been an urgent problem in tackling the climate crisis. This is because methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning that instead of allowing the earth to cool, it traps the heat emitted from the earth in the atmosphere. It can cause a lot of damage, as it is about 30 times more efficient at retaining heat than CO2.

“Reducing methane emissions is an important tool we can use now to mitigate the effects of climate change in the near term and rapidly reduce the rate of warming,” NOAA President Rick Spinrad said earlier.

Because the research is so new, it’s hard to know how serious this problem might be. More research is needed to confirm the origin of methane and understand the extent of the problem in the Arctic, the scientists said.