Discovery of Immense Methane Leaks in Antarctica

A new discovery of methane leaks in Antarctica could be a game-changer and potential near-term threat that’s difficult to characterize without sounding overly negative. Of course, situations like this that appear threatening to civilization, or life as we know it, are difficult to believe and accept as something the will really happen, which is understandable because nothing in human history compares to the risk attendant to the dreaded runaway greenhouse effect. So, there’s nothing in human history to compare it to.

Nevertheless, there are scientists who believe we are living on borrowed time because of massive changes happening at the top and at the bottom of the planet where only scientists and indigenous people hang out. Now, this new discovery serves to emphasize their concerns of a climate monster capable of altering everything, lurking in the background.

The threat is explained in a YouTube video: Immense Methane Leaks in Antarctica: A Hidden Climate Theat Unveiled by Phantom Ecology, which is headed by Milton Muldrow, Ph.D. asst. professor at Wilmington University and Chair/College of Arts & Sciences.

As a prelude to this new information, it’s important to note that Russian scientists have been monitoring the risks of methane breakouts in the High Arctic for a couple of decades and have voiced concern about the risks of a sudden burst as undersea methane clathrates increasingly melt, bubbling to surface in ever-larger diameters, which they have measured. As it happens, methane (CH4) is many times more potent than CO2 at trapping excessive global heat.

Additionally, the risk of a methane breakout is mentioned by Peter Wadhams, emeritus professor, Ocean Physics, University of Cambridge, in his celebrated, brilliant interview: The Future of Sea Level Rise: “Russian scientists working the region believe a huge pulse of methane could erupt.” This could crank up global temperatures to ultra-dangerous levels in as little as 2-3 years. The consequences would be unspeakable. And with Antarctica joining, the game changes.

As a science researcher/writer of over 400 articles, this new development is extraordinarily spooky and difficult to accept because the consequences feel way too close for comfort. Stated at the opening of the Phantom Ecology video: “Deep beneath the icy plains of Antarctica, a slumbering giant is beginning to stir. Scientists have made a startling discovery. Vast reservoirs of methane hydrates locked away for millennia are showing signs of instability.”

The finding sent ripples of concern throughout the world of science. The consequences for the planet could be quite dangerous, maybe sooner rather than later. Rising plumes of methane (CH4) near the Antarctic Peninsula raises a major concern that trapped methane will be released into the atmosphere, exacerbating an already dire situation of accelerating global temperatures. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Maginot line of 1.5C above pre-industrial not to be exceeded as framed at the Paris 2015 climate conference by nearly all the nations of the world is kaput. To date, global temperatures have been exceeding that level for nearly two years running.

Meanwhile, world famous climate scientist James Hansen (Earth Institute, Columbia University) says 2C is on the horizon. “The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2C target is “dead” (Climate Change Target of 2C is ‘Dead’ Says Renonwed Climate Scientist, The Guardian, Feb. 4, 2025). It’s a huge understatement to say this would be horrendous for Antarctic methane leaks, Arctic methane leaks, including Siberian methane leaks and Alaskan methane leaks, as well as Glacial methane leaks (see below “Methane Double Trouble” for another disturbing new discovery).

The volume of methane locked away in Antarctic ice is estimated to be more carbon than all other fuel deposits combined for the planet. A small fraction of this escaping into the atmosphere could have catastrophic consequences for the climate system “in the not-too-distant future.” (Muldrow)

A Climate Time Bomb

Methane hydrates consist of methane molecules trapped within a crystalline lattice of water molecules. This forms an ice substance that can ignite if brought to surface and lit with a match. According to the video: “Release of methane from these hydrates is a frightening prospect. Such a release could trigger a runaway greenhouse effect leading to rapid and catastrophic climate change.” Rapid onset of methane would bring sea levels rising at unprecedented rates, extreme weather events more frequently, and widespread disruptions/destruction to global ecosystems.

Muldrow’s analysis of the first time that large-scale CH4 emissions have been detected in Antarctica is confirmed by Polar Journal d/d March 2025: Large Methane Leaks Discovered in Antarctica: “A research team led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) and the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME-CSIC) undertook an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula as part of the ICEFLAME project. The researchers returned on February 17 and have now reported the discovery of large methane leaks on the sea floor in an ICM publication. For the first time, they were able to observe that large quantities of methane are released from the seabed in a gaseous state where methane hydrates occur.”

Additionally, according to an article in Rapusia.org d/d March 14, 2025, Massive Methane Leaks Detected in Antarctica, Posing Serious Climate Risks: “A team aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa research vessel observed large columns of gas escaping from the ocean floor, with some extending up to 700 meters (2,300 feet) long and 70 meters (230 feet) wide.”

Methane Double Trouble

In addition to massive CH4 leaks discovered in Antarctica, up north in the Arctic scientists recently discovered Arctic glaciers leaking “significant amounts of methane,” revealed for the first time. As explained: “Glacial melt rivers and groundwater springs are transporting large volumes of methane from beneath the ice to the atmosphere. This previously unrecognized process could contribute to Arctic climate feedback, accelerating global warming.” (‘Glacial Fracking’: A Hidden Source of Arctic Greenhouse Gas Emissions, ScienceDaily, Feb. 19, 2025)

As a result, scientists now need to reassess methane budgets, incorporating glacial emissions alongside permafrost thaw and wetland methane fluxes. The complexities of multiple dangers of global warming continue to expand and merge in time. It now appears that both ends of the planet have turned dicey, risky, subject to sudden change all too soon for comfort and all together at the same time.  This could get very ugly; an article in Space.com deals with the issue of runaway global warming: How The Runaway Greenhouse Gas Effect Can Destroy a Planet’s Habitability — Including Earth’s, Space.com, December 19, 2023. Here’s the storyline: “Using advanced computer simulations, scientists have shown how easily a runaway greenhouse effect can rapidly transform a habitable planet into a hellish world inhospitable to life.”

Alas, as explained many times in prior articles, corporations, oil and gas operations, countries are all failing to honor commitments to mitigate climate change even before the U.S. reversed course on combating climate change under the Trump administration. This becomes infectious as Germany recently announced an intention to lessen its commitments. The timing could not be worse. The WMO State of the Climate 2024 Update once again issued a Red Alert at the sheer pace of climate change in a single generation, turbo-charged by ever-increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. 2015-2024 will be the warmest ten years on record; the loss of ice from glaciers, sea-level rise and ocean heating are accelerating; and extreme weather is wreaking havoc on communities and economies across the world. (World Meteorological Organization)

Making matters more unnerving yet, according to Copernicus Global Climate Highlights 2024: “Each month from January to June 2024 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year. August 2024 equaled the record warmth of August 2023 and the remaining months from July to December were each the second warmest for the time of year, after the corresponding months in 2023.”

With a strong dose of humility, it’s suggested that the world’s leadership undertake all available efforts to confront this real, already started, threat to life on the planet via a super-duper Marshall Plan for the world. Alas, it’s almost assured that this suggestion will go unheeded, especially with consideration of the following headline in the prestigious science publication Nature d/d Feb. 25, 2025: Trump 2.0: An Assault on Science Anywhere is an Assault on Science Everywhere.

The climate system is not going to ring a bell before all hell breaks loose. It’ll happen out of the blue, temperatures relentlessly climbing month by month by month to intolerable levels, possibly already started, observed by Copernicus as stated above. Nobody has ever theorized, or even suggested, that it’s impossible for humanity to exterminate itself.

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