Bubbles of highly-flammable methane frozen in iced-over lakes are a strange yet stunning natural phenomenon – but can be dangerous if popped. They also harbor problems for the environment.
Image: Imago/All Canada Photos
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Appearing to hang in suspended animation below the surface of frozen lakes, methane bubbles are a curious sight.
But while they may look stunning, were you to "pop" one and hold a lit match over it, explosive consequences would follow – while mostly harmless, methane is an extremely-flammable gas and would ignite.
Frozen methane bubbles can be seen in many lakes around the world, with one of the best-known places being Lake Abraham in Alberta, Canada.
In winter, wind speeds can reach 48 kilometers per hour at Lake Abraham – combined with very low temperatures, it means the ice that forms on the surface of the lake is very clear, giving visitors a fantastic glimpse of the frozen bubbles below. So how are they formed?
Frozen methane bubbles create a layered effect as they became trapped in the ice while rising to the surfaceImage: picture-alliance/All Canada Photos
Troubling bubbles
Methane bubbles are formed in water when dead organic material such as creatures or leaves sink to the bottom of the lake, which are then decomposed by bacteria. The bacteria then produce methane, which forms bubbles that rise to the surface.
In summer, the bubbles simply pop when they reach the surface and enter the atmosphere. But in winter when the lake is frozen, the bubbles are trapped on their way to the surface.
Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada, is one of the best places to see the frozen bubble phenomenonImage: picture-alliance/All Canada Photos
But as beautiful as they may be, the frozen methane bubbles portend troubles ahead for the environment: as temperatures rise around the globe, more permafrost is melting – letting frozen organic matter thaw and providing more food for bacteria.
That means more methane – a powerful greenhouse gas around 25 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide - being released into the atmosphere, triggering rising levels of global warming along with it.
As the permafrost melts, more methane is being produced - bad news for the environmentImage: picture-alliance/robertharding
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Arctic journey highlights effects of global warming
A Finnish icebreaker has set a new record for the earliest transit of the fabled Northwest Passage. The effects of climate change have opened up, for ever longer periods, the once forbidding route through the Arctic.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
Safe harbour
The Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica is docked before setting sail for the Bering Strait in British Columbia, Canada. The giant vessel is about to take a team of international researchers through the Northwest Passage to record the environmental and social changes transforming this remarkable, forbidding corner of the planet.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
Bright ice
Shards of broken sea ice shine brightly under the Arctic sun as the ship sails through the Franklin Strait on the Northwest Passage. Sea ice forms when the top layer of water reaches freezing point, usually in October. Should the ice survive the following year’s summer melt and beyond, it becomes the toughest kind.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
A cargo ship is framed distantly on the horizon from the deck of the MSV Nordica in the North Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the first sightings of marine traffic the Finnish icebreaker has encountered since it left Vancouver to traverse what is one of the most isolated maritime routes in the world.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
The Chukchi Sea
The MSV Nordica sails past ice floating on the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska as it continues its journey through the Arctic's Northwest Passage. The record-breaking trip remains a challenge for conventional ships but scientists predict the route will be ice free by 2050, if current levels of warming continue.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
Alone in the wild blue yonder
Waves crash against the hull of the MSV Nordica as it heads towards the Bering Sea under a gray sky. For most of its 24-day journey through the Northwest Passage, the only companions the ship and her crew had were Arctic sea birds, seals and the odd whale. Late on in the journey, a crew member sighted a polar bear.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. Goldman
At journey's end
Boatswain Henri Helminen secures a rope as the MSV Nordica docks in Nuuk, Greenland, having traversed the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The 10,000 kilometer (6,214 miles) journey is the earliest transit of the Passage, breaking the record set by a Canadian Coast Guard ship in summer 2008.
