Researchers from the University of Mississippi have found widespread leakage of natural methane in the Atlantic Ocean. They expressed concern the seepng methane gas could contribute to already worsening climate change warming.

Methane plumes were emanating from 570 sea floor cold seep vents on the outer continental shelf in the water column on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and Georges Bank, researchers said.

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Cold seeps occur when gases and fluids leak into the water from sediments. They can occur in a broader range of environments than hydrothermal vents.

The coldness of the cold seeps differs from hydrothermal vents which form hot fluids on the sea floor called the oceanic crust.

These areas found between the Atlantic Ocean and coastline constitute to the continental margin, they added.

Previous researchers found only three cold seep areas beyond the edge of the continental shelf that occurred 590-feet down in deep water on the Atlantic sea floor off the U.S. coast.

Adam Skarke, one of the researchers for this study, said that scientists have not expected a widespread seepage on the Atlantic Margin.

However, he stressed that the seepage was not located near plate tectonic boundaries like US. Pacific coast and did not associated with petroleum basins like northern Gulf of Mexico.

Researchers said that the methane lay close to the shallowest part of the ocean where deep water marine gas hydrate exists on the continental slope.

Gas hydrates are an ice like combination of methane and water that occurs naturally, they explained.

This ice like structure forms at temperature and pressure that were commonly found in water deeper than 1640 feet.

Carolyn Ruppel, one of the researchers, said that gas hydrates release methane when the span of warming of the ocean temperature takes longer.

She stressed that this is the first time continental slope seeps in a mid-latitudes because most seeps are too deep for the methane to reach the atmosphere.

To date, researchers are still finding out what gas the seeps are emitting. They also theorize that the methane leak was produced by microbial processes found in shallow sediments.