Large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane are being released from an Icelandic glacier, scientists have discovered.
Large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane are being released from an Icelandic glacier, scientists have discovered.
A study of Sólheimajökull glacier, which flows from the active, ice-covered volcano Katla, shows that up to 41 tonnes of methane is being released through meltwaters every day during the summer months. This is roughly equivalent to the methane produced by more than 136,000 belching cows.
The Lancaster university-led research, which is featured in Scientific Reports, is the first published field study to show methane release from glaciers on this scale.
“This is a huge amount of methane lost from the glacial meltwater stream into the atmosphere,” said Dr Peter Wynn, a glacial biogeochemist from the Lancaster Environment Centre and corresponding author of the study. “It greatly exceeds average methane loss from non-glacial rivers to the atmosphere reported in the scientific literature. It rivals some of the world’s most methane-producing wetlands; and represents more than twenty times the known methane emissions of all Europe’s other volcanoes put together.”
Read more at Lancaster University
Image: Dr Peter Wynn, Lancaster University, taking a sample in Iceland (Credit: Dr Hugh Tuffen)
