Author: Brandon A. Weber / Source: Big Think
- It’s in a part of Alaska that’s in the Arctic Circle.
- Each day the lake emits methane at a rate equivalent to about 6,000 cows.
- If more like it are found, it could be an ominous warning of things to come.
Melting permafrost.
“The lake, about 20 football fields in size, looked as if it was boiling.
Its waters hissed, bubbled and popped as a powerful greenhouse gas escaped from the lake bed. Some bubbles grew as big as grapefruits, visibly lifting the water’s surface several inches and carrying up bits of mud from below.”That’s the terrifying description journalist Chris Mooney gave of Lake Esieh, in Alaska. What, exactly, is it describing? Melting permafrost.
As in, ice and frozen soil deep down that has never thawed; hence the term “perma.”
The concern is this: If Esieh Lake exists, then surely others do, too. And if the permafrost beneath and around…
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