A Mississippi State geology professor and a Ph.D. student are joining three other universities to investigate methane emissions on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Alongside experts from the University of Georgia, Texas A&M University, and the University of Delaware, MSU professor Adam Skarke and his student Ramon Kalski will soon descend nearly a mile beneath the ocean’s surface to find and study methane – a colorless, odorless greenhouse gas that can alter the chemistry of seawater and influence deep-sea ecosystems.
The two will join an expedition aboard the U.S. Navy’s research vessel, Atlantis, funded by the National Science Foundation on a $3 million project through late September to identify and study the effects of these large pockets of methane gas on the Gulf and its ecosystems. They will aim to determine its origins, what controls its movements, how much enters the ocean, and how long the emissions have occurred.
“The results of this work will give us information that helps us better understand our shared ocean and atmosphere, including things that impact our lives like fisheries, energy resources and climate,” Skarke said.
Skarke, Kalski, and the team will travel 80 miles off the coast of Virginia and use Alvin – the ship’s human-occupied, deep-sea vehicle – to descend nearly 4,000 feet to collect samples of the gas as well as sediment, rock, and water samples that they believe could be changed by the gas. They will use cameras and special instruments to measure the methane discharge levels on the seafloor.
According to MSU’s Department of Geosciences, they believe that findings from their expedition could help scientists around the world better understand these seafloor processes that affect the Gulf as well as climate and marine resources.
The upcoming expedition is the third phase of the research project. During the first two expeditions, researchers mapped the seafloor and subsurface, discovering that the methane discharge sites were 15 times more abundant than they previously thought.
A fourth expedition is planned for 2027 with the goal of collecting deep sediment cores to investigate how methane moves through the seafloor and how emissions have changed over time.