Gas extraction and degradation of the submarine permafrost rocks on the Laptev Sea shelf

In 2011 and 2012, the interdisciplinary oceanic cruises of the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrent’ev and R/V Viktor Buinitskii were conducted in the framework of the project of targeted basic research of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. These studies identified strong methane jets because of the degradation of submarine permafrost rocks (SPRs), which is related to paleogeographical and modern factors of formation of the upper sedimentary sequence and also to structural peculiarities of the Arctic region. Large gas and water volumes are formed at the expense of the SPR defrosting; move along the upper sedimentary shelf sequence and along the surface of one or another layer (from coastal warmed areas to cooler deep areas); and form horizontally elongated convective cells, which activates destruction even at negative bottom temperatures. The methane emission will increase and become massive during the continuing SPR degradation.