Research led by a University of New Hampshire professor has identified a new source of methane for gas hydrates — ice-like substances found in sediment that trap methane within the crystal structure of frozen water — in the Arctic Ocean. The findings, published online now in the May 2015 journal\u00a0Geology, point to a previously undiscovered, stable reservoir for abiotic methane — methane not generated by decomposing carbon — that is "locked" away from the atmosphere, where it could impact global climate change."We've found an example where methane produced at a mid-ocean ridge is locked up in stable, deep water gas hydrate, preventing it from possibly getting out of the seafloor,"\u00a0says lead author Joel Johnson, associate professor of geology at UNH and guest researcher at the Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Troms\u00f8. Johnson notes that the findings, which pinpointed a source of abiotic methane \u00acproduced in seafloor crust, indicate gas hydrates throughout the Arctic may be supplied by a significant portion of abiotic gas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-184989","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n