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Global Warming Causing Methane Release
29/Aug/2006: Periods of warming temperatures during the last ice age triggered the release of methane from beneath the ocean, according to U.S. and French researchers.
Once in the atmosphere, the methane would have acted as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Off the California coast and elsewhere around the world natural petroleum seeps release oil, tar and gas into the bottom of the ocean.
Some methane gas finds its way to the surface, while the tar sinks back to the bottom. Methane is also generated in marine sediments by bacteria and other organisms.
Much of the biological methane remains at the sea floor in a chemically "frozen" form. Methane emissions peaked between 16,000 to 14,000 years ago and again 11,000 to 10,000 years ago, both periods when glaciers were melting and the ocean was warming.
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