Abstract
Permafrost is defined as permanently frozen ground, except the upper part usually thaws during summer months. Most of the permafrost on Earth is in areas that were glaciated during the last ice age and are still cold enough to keep the ground frozen. There is a tremendous quantity of methane trapped in permafrost that is being released as the permafrost melts. Methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, to which it eventually converts in the atmosphere. Methane clathrates are potentially the cause of relatively sudden climate changes in the geologic past (PETM) and today represent a potential clathrate gun hypothesis for future sudden climate change.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Additional Readings
Alley, R. B. (2000). The two-mile time machine: Ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Christensen, T. R., et al. (2004). Thawing sub-arctic permafrost: Effects on vegetation and methane emissions. Geophysical Research Letters, 31, L04501. doi:10.1029/2003GL018680.
EPICA Community Members. (2004). Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core. Nature, 429, 623–628. doi:10.1038/nature02599.
Hinrichs, K. U., et al. (2003). Molecular fossil record of elevated methane levels in late Pleistocene coastal waters. Science, 299, 1214–1217. doi:10.1126/science.1079601.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2001). Climate change 2001: The scientific basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: The scientific basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kennett, J. P., et al. (2003). Methane hydrates in Quaternary climate change: The clathrate gun hypothesis. Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.
Lamb, H. H. (1972). Climate past, present and future (Vol. 1). London: Methuen & Co Ltd.
Ruddiman, W. (2003). The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago. Climatic Change, 61, 261–293. doi:10.1023/B:CLIM.0000004577.17928.fa.
Schmidt, G. A., & Shindell, D. T. (2003). Atmospheric composition, radiative forcing and climate change as a consequence of a massive methane release from gas hydrates. Paleoceanography, 18. doi:10.1029/2002PA000757.
Severinghaus, J. P., & Brook, E. J. (1999). Abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial period inferred from trapped air in polar ice. Science, 286, 930–934. doi:10.1126/science.286.5441.930.
Wang, W. C., et al. (1976). Greenhouse effects due to man-made perturbation of trace gases. Science, 194, 685–690.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Farmer, G.T., Cook, J. (2013). Permafrost and Methane. In: Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5757-8_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5757-8_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5756-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5757-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)