Spatial distribution of methane seepage on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf

A 2009 multibeam sonar survey of the shallow water-column (mean depth 10 m), near-coastal region of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) adjacent to the Lena River Delta detected tens of thousands of widespread bubble plume seeps. The ESAS contains an estimated 1400 GT (109 tons = 1 GT) of carbon sequestered within and beneath a sub-sea permafrost unit that has become inundated due to sea-level transgression over the last ~15,000 years. This carbon pool includes methane (CH4) as free and dissolved gas, as well as potentially extensive methane hydrate deposits, yet its contribution to global carbon stocks has traditionally been ignored due to the assumed integrity of the sub-sea permafrost as an impermeable barrier to hydrocarbon migration. Recent results indicate that in some regions of the ESAS, methane is migrating through destabilized permafrost into the shallow water-column from which it efficiently vents to the atmosphere. This process represents an unknown but potentially significant contribution to the global greenhouse gas budget and is likely to accelerate under global warming scenarios. We hypothesize that the mapped seeps are fed by methane deposits within and beneath capping permafrost units that release gas into the thin overlying sediments through columns of thaw sediments and other permeable structures within the permafrost. Such sub-sea permafrost features have been previously identified in association with isolated bubble plumes in the ESAS as close as 25 km from the study area (Rekant et al., 2009). These proposed migration pathways suggest thermal destabilization within the subsea permafrost cap; however, the rates at which these processes are occurring remain unknown. The spatial distributions of the most numerous and intense areas of seepage correlate with the areas of greatest fluvial discharge from the Lena and Olenek Rivers and their tributaries. This thermal influence is also evident in seasonal time series of adjacent sea ice retreat over the same areas of intense seepage. These associations suggests that warm terrestrial runoff from coastal Siberian rivers is providing significant heat to areas of sub-sea permafrost and affecting the thermal regime controlling the stability of the sequestered carbon pool.