As the Arctic Ocean warms, it is melting the permafrost layer and
methane clathrate. This is causing methane to bubble up from the ocean floor and into the atmosphere where it will trap heat.
Left out on a tabletop,
methane clathrate dissociates into its constituents, leaving nothing but a puddle of water.
"There are vast stores of
methane clathrates beneath the ocean and in permafrost and there is evidence that millions of years ago release from these storages caused significant climate change, although none in more recent times," he added.
MacDonald, "Role of
methane clathrates in past and future climates," Climatic Change, vol.
Possible sources include
methane clathrates, basically a methane molecule inside a "cage" or lattice of ice molecules.
Studies measuring isotopes of carbon, conducted by an international team of scientists, including CSIRO, have shown that
methane clathrates were not responsible for the large and rapid increase in methane when temperatures rose at the end of the last ice age (12 000 years ago).
Methane garners its own tipping point in the form of
methane clathrates, the 1- to 2.5-trillion-ton reservoir of frozen methane underlying the ocean floor and the Arctic permafrost.