Multiple giant craters have been discovered on the ocean floor in the Barents Sea. Contrary to recent media reports, they are not connected to theories about Bermuda Triangle. They are however connected to huge blowouts of methane gas in the area during the last deglaciation.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Capture and storage of CO₂ beneath the sea floor is an important strategy in the struggle to reduce the amount of the climate gas in the atmosphere. A new project sets to see how safe such storage is.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Greenland experienced several abrupt and severe climate changes during the last ice age. But even during the coldest periods a blob of warm surface water existed nearby.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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A bed of fossilized, methane dependent clams has for the first time been observed in the high Arctic. It tells the story of a thousand year long methane release event.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Scientists are getting ready to drill for an ice core holding the oldest ice on planet. They want to reach 1,5 million year old ice with traces of past climate changes.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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A new study in Nature Communications shows that ice sheets may be keeping vast reservoirs of methane in check. This adds a new concern to rapid ice sheet retreat.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Ingrid Schjølberg, the director of NTNU Ocean science and technology in Trondheim Norway, has accepted the position as a permanent member of the steering committee for CAGE.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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CAGE-scientists Anna Silyakova and Giuliana Panieri have contributed to the latest AMAP assessment on methane as Arctic climate forcer. The assessment programme is developed by Arctic Council and is aimed specifically at policymakers.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Huge mounds, pingos, are discovered on the seabed offshore Siberia. They are forming because of the thawing of subsea permafrost and high accumulation of methane.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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German research vessel Polarstern went to the Fram Strait on an expedition this year. On board were two scientists from CAGE, with a mission to install a methane sensor at the deep-sea observatory Hausgarten.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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That was one of the main questions raised at a workshop, recently arranged by our research school in Arctic Marine Geology and Geophysics. Oceans are covering over 70 percent of our home planet´s surface. It is therefore important to understand how greenhouse gases affected ocean life in the past, and how they may affect it in the future.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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[types field=”Blogging from the field”][/types]

Our early career scientists went recently on a field trip to Apennines in Northern Italy. During the field trip they created a blog, communicating simple facts from the field to general public.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Mysteries still abound about methane release from the ocean floor. Two state of the art observatories have been deployed offshore Svalbard this summer, to try and unveil the secrets of natural release of the climate gas.

Text: Maja Sojtaric. Photos: Anna Silyakova

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Tromsø will soon be one of few places in the world where scientists can analyze clumped isotopes. The groundbreaking method allows for more precise reconstruction of past climate changes, and will be performed with the new mass spectrometer currently being installed at CAGE.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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CAGE director Jürgen Mienert recently visited the new 2G Cryogen Magnetometer that is being installed by our partner Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) in Trondheim. The instrument will be used to date past climate and environmental changes by studying magnetic iron minerals.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Ice has weighed heavy on the Arctic for at least two million years. And now it´s rapidly retreating. Present studies of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica help us unravel the past. The past provides perspective on the future.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Close to 30.000 high definition images of the deep Arctic Ocean floor were captured on a recent research cruise. This gives us an exclusive insight into the most remote sites of natural methane release in the world.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Dr. Soma Baranwal has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 W. Storrs Cole Memorial Research Award meant to support research in invertebrate micropaleontology. The grant is awarded by Geological Society of America.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Dr. Henry Patton, post doctoral researcher at CAGE, won an award for best poster at PAST Gateways conference at Alfred Wegener Institute. Poster showed how modelling is used to reconstruct the last ice sheet to cover the Barents Sea.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Dr. William Ambrose, who is currently a visiting scholar at CAGE, has been appointed as new Program Director of the Arctic Observing Network Program in the Arctic Sciences Section of the National Science Foundation (Washington DC, USA).

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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We have had a busy year in 2014, with many achievements and discoveries. You can now enjoy reading about many of them in our annual report for 2014.

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Bacteria that feed on methane can control its concentration once it is released from the ocean floor. This can potentially stop the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. But ocean currents can easily disturb dinner, according to new study in Nature Geoscience.

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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That is one of the questions that COST Action MIGRATE is trying to answer. Stefan Bünz was recently elected as Vice Chair of the action, supported by EUs framework program.

By: Maja Sojtaric

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Norwegian Research Council supports the national climate research school, CHESS, with over 2,5 million Euro. The school will provide PhD students in geosciences with intensive courses related to climate research.

By: Maja Sojtaric

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A reservoir of abiotic methane has been discovered in the Arctic Ocean. This means that there is more of the greenhouse gas trapped under the seabed than previously thought.

By: Maja Sojtaric

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Our post. doc Anna Silyakova spent six weeks frozen into an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean on board the research vessel Lance. In this blog post you can read more about the experiments she conducted in the ice.

Text: Daiki Nomura ( Hokkaido University) and Anna Silyakova (CAGE). Blog was previously published by Norwegian Polar Institute.

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Mohamed Ezat, PhD student at CAGE, recently won an award for best student lecture at the all staff meeting for The Norwegian Research School in Climate Dynamics (ResClim).

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Dr. Anna Silyakova will spend six weeks frozen into Arctic sea ice on board Research Vessel Lance. Her goal is to measure the escape of methane from the ocean covered by young sea ice. 

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Natural seepage of methane offshore the Arctic archipelago Svalbard has been occurring periodically for at least 2,7 million years. Major events of methane emissions happened at least twice during this period, according to a new study. 

Text: Maja Sojtaric

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Methane gas flares, up to 800 meters high, rise from the Arctic Ocean floor. That is the size of the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Golden Gate Bridge becomes a miniature, in this visual comparison.

Text: Maja Sojtaric, Video illustration: Aleksei Portnov, phd.

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