Word: arctics
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...frequently admit, and even when researchers uncover a new piece of data, it isn't always clear what it means. That's very much the case with a new paper about methane emissions, published Thursday in Science. Based on a series of expeditions to the margins of the Arctic Ocean by ship and helicopter, University of Alaska researcher Natalia Shakhova and her colleagues report that methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, is bubbling up from the continental shelf and leaking into the atmosphere. The estimated total...
...number itself isn't what worries people, though: it's whether this newly identified methane source is part of an ominous trend. Climate scientists have long worried about the enormous amount of methane locked in Arctic permafrost, the thick layer of soil just beneath the surface that remains frozen all year. The methane was originally deposited there through decomposition of organic matter in ancient wetlands, and as long as it stays put, it can't contribute to climate change. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
...permafrost is on dry land either. The East Siberian Arctic Shelf, a vast expanse of shallow seafloor off Russia's northeast coast, was once wetland as well. It was submerged as melting glaciers drove sea level up at the end of the last ice age, but it still contains methane-rich permafrost, which Shakhova believes may now be becoming unstable. The numbers are not alarmingly large, she agrees, but what is worrisome is that no leakage was expected here. (See TIME's special report on the environment...
...some points have to move faster than others to spin the full 360° by the one-day deadline. That's because some parts of the planet are much bigger than others, at least in circumference. The Earth's equator is 24,901 miles around. The perimeter of the Arctic Circle, by contrast, is just 9,945 miles, and if you stand five feet from the North Pole, the circumference you inscribe as the Earth rotates is a scant 31.4 feet. Yet in all of those places, it still takes 24 hours to complete a single rotation. (The fact that...
...sport. Canadian pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took the gold, while Davis and White took the silver. (Both pairs have benefited from the Russian legacy, having being trained by Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva, two Russian coaches who have established a mecca of ice-dancing expertise at the Arctic Figure Skating Club in Canton, Mich.) (See the top 10 sports moments...