The Four Corners region is a mecca for mysteries, including
the disappeared cliff-dwelling Anasazis, reported UFOs and the Devil’s Highway,
route 666.
The latest mystery scientists are trying to unravel is “the now notorious Four Corners Methane Hotspot, a
massive concentration of potent greenhouse gas detected by a satellite between
2003 and 2009,” High Country News reports.
Methane gas is one of the chief
causes of global warming.
Associated Press reported: “Methane doesn't last as long in the atmosphere as carbon
dioxide, but it's far more potent for capturing heat in the short term.”
Although the satellite that
discovered it has shut down, the hotspot remains. Its presence was revealed
last year.
A study detailing the satellite's
findings was released last year.
This spring scientists have
been flying over the area to determine how much of it is natural and how much
comes from the coal bed methane fields in the San Juan Basin. A month-long
study is near completion.
It
is the biggest “hot spot” in the nation, “equal
to nearly 10 percent of all U.S. methane emissions from natural gas,” according
to Live Science.
Phys.Org reports: "A detailed analysis indicates that methane emissions in the region are actually three times
larger than reported by EPA. Our analysis demonstrates that current EPA
inventories are missing huge methane sources in the region," said
Manvendra Dubey, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist on the project.
"We attribute this hot spot to fugitive leaks from coal-bed methane that
actually preceded recent concerns about potential emissions from
fracking," Dubey said.
Geophyiscal Research
Letters reported the findings of Dubey’s team of LANL, NASA and University of
Michigan scientists.
The EPA says methane gas is the
second most prevalent greenhouse gas emitted in the U.S.
President Obama issued Executive
Order 13693 on March 15, 2015. It “aims to reduce the federal government’s
greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions while increasing clean energy consumption. The
Order applies to all federal agencies by definition and details a three-tiered
scope of applicability to encourage parallel changes “across the Federal supply
chain.”
Some scientists have linked fracking to methane gas leaks around
the nation.
The Four Corners Area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah,
also suffers pollution from power plants, some based on Indian reservations.
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