Relevant methane emission to the atmosphere from a geological gas manifestation

Adriano Mazzini; Alessandra Sciarra; Giuseppe Etiope; Pankaj Sadavarte; Sander Houweling; Sudhanshu Pandey; Alwi Husein

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-83369-9

Relevant methane emission to the atmosphere from a geological gas manifestation

Adriano Mazzini^*
, Alessandra Sciarra
, Giuseppe Etiope
, Pankaj Sadavarte
, Sander Houweling
, Sudhanshu Pandey
, Alwi Husein

^*Corresponding author for this work

Earth Sciences

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Quantifying natural geological sources of methane (CH₄) allows to improve the assessment of anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel industries. The global CH₄ flux of geological gas is, however, an object of debate. Recent fossil (¹⁴C-free) CH₄ measurements in preindustrial-era ice cores suggest very low global geological emissions (~ 1.6 Tg year⁻¹), implying a larger fossil fuel industry source. This is however in contrast with previously published bottom-up and top-down geo-emission estimates (~ 45 Tg year⁻¹) and even regional-scale emissions of ~ 1–2 Tg year⁻¹. Here we report on significant geological CH₄ emissions from the Lusi hydrothermal system (Indonesia), measured by ground-based and satellite (TROPOMI) techniques. Both techniques indicate a total CH₄ output of ~ 0.1 Tg year⁻¹, equivalent to the minimum value of global geo-emission derived by ice core ¹⁴CH₄ estimates. Our results are consistent with the order of magnitude of the emission factors of large seeps used in global bottom-up estimates, and endorse a substantial contribution from natural Earth’s CH₄ degassing. The preindustrial ice core assessments of geological CH₄ release may be underestimated and require further study. Satellite measurements can help to test geological CH₄ emission factors and explain the gap between the contrasting estimates.

Original language	English
Article number	4138
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	11
Early online date	18 Feb 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83369-9
Publication status	Published - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Funding

The work was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme Grant agreement no. 308126 (LUSI LAB project, PI A. Mazzini). We acknowledge the support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, Project Number 223272 (CEED) and the HOTMUD project (288299). This research contains modified48 Sentinel data for 2018 and 2019. PS and SP are funded through the GALES (Gas Leaks from Space) project (Grant 15597) by the Dutch Technology Foundation, which is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research (NWO). BPLS and PPLS personnel are thanked for their field support. Finally, we thank the editor and the numerous reviewers for their constructive comments that improved this manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Stichting voor de Technische Wetenschappen
European Research Council
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	687800
European Commission	308126
Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Australian Research Council	288299, 15597
Norges forskningsråd	223272

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

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10.1038/s41598-021-83369-9

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abstract = "Quantifying natural geological sources of methane (CH4) allows to improve the assessment of anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel industries. The global CH4 flux of geological gas is, however, an object of debate. Recent fossil (14C-free) CH4 measurements in preindustrial-era ice cores suggest very low global geological emissions (\textasciitilde{} 1.6 Tg year−1), implying a larger fossil fuel industry source. This is however in contrast with previously published bottom-up and top-down geo-emission estimates (\textasciitilde{} 45 Tg year−1) and even regional-scale emissions of \textasciitilde{} 1–2 Tg year−1. Here we report on significant geological CH4 emissions from the Lusi hydrothermal system (Indonesia), measured by ground-based and satellite (TROPOMI) techniques. Both techniques indicate a total CH4 output of \textasciitilde{} 0.1 Tg year−1, equivalent to the minimum value of global geo-emission derived by ice core 14CH4 estimates. Our results are consistent with the order of magnitude of the emission factors of large seeps used in global bottom-up estimates, and endorse a substantial contribution from natural Earth{\textquoteright}s CH4 degassing. The preindustrial ice core assessments of geological CH4 release may be underestimated and require further study. Satellite measurements can help to test geological CH4 emission factors and explain the gap between the contrasting estimates.",

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AU - Houweling, Sander

AU - Pandey, Sudhanshu

AU - Husein, Alwi

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Relevant methane emission to the atmosphere from a geological gas manifestation

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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