Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our normal comment rules still apply to other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Study: Negligible atmospheric release of methane from decomposing hydrates in mid-latitude oceans

>Abstract

>Naturally occurring gas hydrates may contribute to a positive feedback for global warming because they sequester large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane in ice-like deposits that could be destabilized by increasing ocean/atmospheric temperatures. Most hydrates occur within marine sediments; gas liberated during the decomposition of seafloor hydrates or originating with other methane pools can feed methane emissions at cold seeps. Regardless of the origin of seep methane, all previous measurements of methane emitted from seeps have shown it to have a unique fossil radiocarbon signature, contrasting with other sources of marine methane. Here we present the concentration and natural radiocarbon content of methane dissolved in the water column from the seafloor to the sea surface at seep fields along the US Atlantic and Pacific margins. For shallower water columns, where the seafloor is not within the hydrate stability zone, we do document seep CH4 in some surface-water samples. However, measurements in deeper water columns along the US Atlantic margin reveal no evidence of seep CH4 reaching surface waters when the water-column depth is greater than 430 ± 90 m. Gas hydrates exist only at water depths greater than ~550 m in this region, suggesting that the source of methane escaping to the atmosphere is not from hydrate decomposition.

This study is in good agreement with previous studies that examined the likes of the "clathrate bomb hypothesis". For example, see the following findings from 2017: https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/gas-hydrate-breakdown-unlikely-cause-massive-greenhouse-gas-release

Thank you for this. All the doom and gloom makes everything feel hopeless. Even s shred of good news is good to hear.

[removed]

Goes to show that science is not the brainless, alarmist hoax that many people believe it is.

Rather, it is self correcting and when a threat to the climate is found to have been overestimated, they correct it.

For any good scientist, nothing is as exiting as getting proved wrong.

Not sure how true that is. Nothing is as exciting as an established theory being proved wrong, but any up-and-coming scientist wants to be right, even if they will accept if they’re wrong

[removed]