Large number of methane deposits releasing gas along US East Coast

Earth Magazine : Sea-floor methane deposits are commonly found leaking gas in tectonically active areas or in areas rich in petroleum. They are considered to be a potentially significant contributor of greenhouse gases. Now Adam Skarke of Mississippi State University and his colleagues have found 570 methane seeps along the tectonically quiet and oil-poor East Coast of the US. Skarke’s team used multibeam sonar, commonly used for producing 3D maps of the sea floor, to find the seeps. Previous scans of the region did not have a resolution capable of detecting the small bubbles up to 1.6 km below sea level. Despite the large number of seeps found, the amount of gas being released by them is quite small. However, the discovery suggests that the search for seeps should be expanded to areas that were not previously considered likely sites.