For years, they were the mystery bumps dimpling the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada.
Hundreds of small hills rose from the flat seabed, creating an eerie topography in the still, frigid gloom. Some loom more than 100 feet over the sediment in a place covered by ice most of the year. What could have caused them?
Kim Fulton-Bennett (c) 2007 MBARI
Scientists figured they were just “pingos” — mounds formed by ice-cores and permafrost on the Arctic tundra — that had been inundated when the ocean rose after the last ice age ended.
But new research from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute suggests these mounds may have another cause, one that could contribute dramatically to climate change by adding the super greenhouse gas methane to the atmosphere.