Potential Methane Burst

Robert Hunziker summarizes a talk by Peter Wadhams about the release of methane along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. While the probability of the event is not quantified, there is concern over a sudden outburst of as much as 50 gigatons.

[W]e’d be getting an extra 0.6°C more or less immediately, a sudden rise of global temperatures… Now, this is not good news because the entire move up since the 19th century has only been one degree centigrade for the planet as a whole, and here we are… adding 0.6°C instantly, within a few months or weeks, we don’t know how instant, but it would be very instant. It’s something we’ve never experienced on this planet.

Update (October 4, 2021):  Hunziker reports on record heat in Siberia and a new source of methane.

Inordinate levels of methane in Siberia were traced to hydrocarbon reservoir rocks, not wetlands, not permafrost, not microbial methane. This ancient methane is stored in carbonates.