A Silent Threat
-Agnes V Philip, BSc. ‘25
Estimated reading time: 8-10 minutes
Lakes boiling, huge mysterious holes in the ground, gigantic natural explosions, showing us no sign of stopping rather they are increasing as the day passes by. Is nature trying to explain something, is Earth calling us for help by showing all these aggressive signs that people have never seen before? So, what’s happening beneath the ground? Is it related to the warming of the earth?
I’d like to take you to a peninsula named Yamal which is 47,000 sq miles of freezing tundra, located in northern Russia above the Arctic Circle. Yamal means “End of the World “and it’s now beginning to look like it. This is where the scientists discovered the first mysterious sinkhole, in 2014, which is 66ft wide and up to 171 ft deep. How is this sinkhole different from other sinkholes? Other sinkholes that are caused by water or erosion weakening collapse inward, they are flat and not raised. Still, here it looks as if it has happened due to an asteroid as if there was some massive explosion, or maybe because of lava and volcanic rocks but there are no signs of explosion or what led to a massive explosion. Well, what is it then?
Before answering that question, let’s see another place where a very odd thing took place. Kotzebue, near Alaska’s northwest coast. In 2017, a local pilot reported a lake behaving oddly. The Esieh Lake is bubbling, it’s boiling. In search of the source of the bubble, they found a 50ft massive hole beneath the lake floor in the middle of the 3ft deep lake.
Does the sinkhole and the lake have anything in common? Yes, both are located on the same type of frozen terrain and scientists found the presence of methane. The lake was belching out ten tons of methane every day. Methane is a flammable gas made of carbon and hydrogen that ignites easily when combined with air. Methane is 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Is methane the only cause of this massive hole?
No, the main protagonist of these mysterious things is “permafrost”. Permafrost means “permanently frozen ground”. It can stretch almost a mile beneath the Earth’s surface. But it can remain frozen for millennia. Recently some of the permafrost has started to thaw. Is the permafrost thaw dangerous? How is it connected to methene?
Permafrost contains vast quantities of organic matter that contains carbon. As this permafrost is in the Arctic it decomposes slowly due to cold. The amount of carbon present in the permafrost is over 1,700 billion metric tons. It’s twice the amount of carbon present currently in the Earth’s atmosphere. Because of the thawing, we do not know how much carbon will end up in the Earth’s atmosphere and how fast.
As permafrost thaws, the carbon in it starts to thaw. The whole new carbon cycle begins. Microbes break down the carbon which then is used for energy and decomposition. During this process, two main greenhouse gases are released that is carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases are a blessing and a curse. They are a concern as they trap heat. It is a blessing as it makes this a habitable planet but as they are too much in the atmosphere it would make this inhabitable planet soon. The concerning part is that climate scientists do not know how much methane is permafrost releasing.
The methene that was found in the lake was from the organic matter in permafrost thawing and decomposing, at the bottom of the lake, which then rises as a methene bubble to the surface. Across the Arctic, the permafrost thaw is generating a vast number of new lakes. As the soil warms, ice below the soil warms causing the ground to slump and fill with water. Once a new lake is formed there is no going back it will just lead to the formation of a new lake and as the lake has heat because of methane, it will again cause the ground to thaw faster and this cycle continues as the methane escapes, causing more permafrost thawing which again generates more methane. Warming is causing more warming.
Permafrost is not the largest carbon reserve on Earth. There is a much larger in fossil fuels. We do not talk much about it as we believe these fossil fuels are stable. Well, the Earth is proving us wrong.
It doesn’t end with menthane or permafrost but it goes much deeper. The scientists found evidence that the methane released from the permafrost thawing shows that it originated from deeper inside the Earth, much deeper. Miles beneath the permafrost, deep in Earth’s crust, lie huge fossil methane reservoirs. But if it is miles beneath, how is it getting through Earth’s crust, and why here?
The permafrost thaw causes 2 big damages to the atmosphere. It releases methane when it thaws and lets fossil carbon trapped underneath escape. Scientists have estimated that there are over 1.3 trillion of methane stored beneath the Arctic. It’s nearly 250 times as much methane as there is in the Earth’s atmosphere. Is Esieh Lake’s thaw chimney distinctive or is the fossil fuel found elsewhere? In Alaska alone, 70 sites have been found.
Methane craters are just one sign of a region undergoing unprecedented changes. The cause of our actions is affecting elsewhere and it doesn’t take much time to reach our doorsteps. Methane is 80 times more potent for warming than carbon dioxide. With methane emission comes many consequences that are too difficult to undo.
We humans achieved everything. We went to the end and beyond the world and explored everything. After achieving everything and at the end when Earth gives up on us because of our doing, who will benefit from us? Our future generation? Oops, they are going to hate us for what we gifted them.
“I WANT YOU TO ACT AS IF YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE. BECAUSE IT IS.”
– GRETA THUNBERG
