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A very powerful gas fountain in the Arctic Ocean has been shown for the first time.

The giant methane ‘cauldron of bubbles’, which was discovered earlier this month in the East Siberian Sea, has been revealed in a series of pictures and videos.

Scientists said the fountain was ‘shocking’ and described it as ‘violently boiling’ when it was spotted near Bennett Island.

It was produced when permafrost began to thaw under the sea and released methane trapped in frozen soil.


Lead researcher from Tomsk Polytechnic University Professor Igor Semiletov told the Siberian Times: ‘This is the most powerful gas fountain I have ever seen…



‘No-one has ever recorded anything like this before.’

It looks pretty impressive (Picture: Tomsk Polytechnic University)

Its the largest-ever methane fountain found in he Arctic Ocean (Picture: Tomsk Polytechnic University)

Around 65 scientists from 12 research organisations in seven countries – Russia, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Italy, the UK and the USA were on board the Academician Keldysh research vessel for the expedition.

Team member Sergey Nikiforov added: ‘It was a needle in a haystack chase to find the exact place of a methane seep in dark sea waters, but we found it.’

The mission was to study undersea permafrost, greenhouse gases, water and seabed sediments in the East Siberian Laptev sea and Kara seas.

The team found high levels of permafrost degradation, worse than previous estimates, which led them to reconsider whether the subsea permafrost is stable.

They reported: ‘It has been proved that over the past 30 years speed of vertical degradation of subsea permafrost doubled compared to previous centuries and reached 18 centimetres per year which is significantly higher than in earlier estimates.’

A team of 65 scientists were on board the Academician Keldysh research vessel for the expedition (Picture: Tomsk Polytechnic University)

It looks pretty special (Picture: Tomsk Polytechnic University)

Permafrost lies under much of the Arctic Ocean and two-thirds of all Russian territory.

Methane trapped in the frozen soil is released with potentially devastating consequences for the world’s climate.

It can warm the earth 86 times as much as carbon dioxide over two decades.

It was previously thought subsea permafrost could only thaw by “a few metres” until the end of the 21st century – but this is being reassessed.

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