Melting of Siberian peat bog could speed global warming: report

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — A huge expanse of western Siberia is going through an unprecedented thaw that could speed the rate of global warming dramatically, a British weekly said.

Scientists recently back from the Russian region say the world's largest frozen peat bog is melting into shallow lakes. It is thawing for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago.

The area, a million square kilometres, is equivalent to the size of France and Germany and could release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, the New Scientist said on its website.

The discovery was made by Judith Marquand from Britain's University of Oxford and botanist Sergei Kirpotin from Russia's Tomsk State University.

Kirpotin described the situation as an...