Recent Paper on Sea-bed Permafrost North of Barrow, Alaska (Beaufort Sea) and Degradation

A recent paper, Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky is co-author, details seabed geoelectric field observations of ice-rich sea-bed permafrost and estimate of the degradation rate. Sea-bed permafrost like permafrost on land can hold substantial amounts of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. Degradation of sea-bed permafrost on the shallow continental shelves of the coastal seas of the Arctic Ocean could 'ignite' a substantially positive feedback loop with the atmosphere-land-ocean systems in the Arctic with global impact. The paper is published in JGR - Earth Surface, v. 117, and can be found in digital form at http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011JF002088.shtml.