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At the bottom of the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean, washing shores of Russia and Norway, oceanologists have discovered colossal “hillocks”, which, according to experts, may in the future to explode, releasing into the ocean, and then into the atmosphere giant volumes of methane.
Pavel Serov, working at the Arctic University of Norway, says scientists annually return to these “gas domes, and with great concern they are exploring them. Each time, experts they are afraid that one of the “frosty hillocks”, as they are officially accepted called in the scientific community, turned into a crater similar to those which are found in other regions of the sea. These structures, being the last traces of continental glaciation, held from the explosion only a large thickness of water above them.
Craters at the bottom of the Barents Sea, discovered at the end of the past centuries by Russian and foreign geologists, represent large funnels, the depth of which is tens of meters, and radius is hundreds. They arose about 12 thousand years ago. due to accumulation of frozen explosive gas in surface layers of the ground, on which pressure 2 km ice layer.
A photo from open sources
As the ice retreated in due time, the reserves of methane in the ground began to melt intensively, leading to bloating, formation large hills and their subsequent explosion. As a result of this in the hydrosphere and atmosphere of the planet hit a huge amount of methane. It probably accelerated the retreat of the ice, thereby putting an end to ice age.
Pavel Serov, together with his colleagues found out that this the process is still far from complete, and in the Barents Sea other explosions of “frosty knolls” occur. Scientists have come to this the conclusion by examining the arctic bottom near Bear Island, where there are ancient craters and craters from their explosions. Content methane in several particularly large domes turned out to be extremely high. Observations show that gas is slowly but steadily seeps through cracks in the ground, while in the surface layers of the seabed contain large amounts of frozen methane.
A photo from open sources
At this point, at the bottom of the Barents Sea, a layer of water with a thickness of 390 meters, and this is still enough to hold methane “mounds” from destruction. However, if the depth of the sea becomes less here at least 20 meters, explosions can begin and unpredictable the consequences for our planet caused by them. Theoretically it may become possible in the future due to global warming the ocean.
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