https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/10/climate/methane-seeps-antarcticaMethane seeps in Antarctica are among the least understood on the planet, so a team of international scientists set out to find them. They used a combination of ship-based acoustic surveys, remotely operated vehicles and divers to sample a range of sites in the Ross Sea, a bay in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, at depths between 16 and 790 feet.
What they found surprised them. They identified more than 40 methane seeps in the shallow water of the Ross Sea, according to the study published this month in Nature Communications.
Many of the seeps were found at sites that had been repeatedly studied before, suggesting they were new. This may indicate a “fundamental shift” in the methane released in the region, according to the report.
Methane seeps are relatively common globally, but previously there was only one confirmed active seep in the Antarctic, said Sarah Seabrook, a report author and a marine scientist at Earth Sciences New Zealand, a research organization. “Something that was thought to be rare is now seemingly becoming widespread,” she told CNN.