A gorgeous photo of frozen methane bubbles trapped in ice within the deepest lake on earth has gone viral.
The picture— taken by photographer Kristina Makeeva and also shared by NASA—shows bubbles of methane in Lake Baikal, in the mountainous region of Siberia, Russia, rising to the surface.
The lake, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site, contains more than 20 percent of the world's fresh water. As it is so deep, it is the only one in the world known to act as a methane storehouse.
Methane is a greenhouse gas and one of the main contributors of climate change. It can be produced naturally by the decay of organic material and, if released into the atmosphere in large quantities, can be harmful to the environment.
The phenomenon seen in the photograph happens when plants at the bottom of the deep lake start to decay and break down. These plants then release methane gas, which rise to the surface and begins to freeze.
A photo taken by Kristina Makeeva shows frozen methane bubbles in Lake Baikal. A photo taken by Kristina Makeeva shows frozen methane bubbles in Lake Baikal. Photo by Kristina @Hobopeeba Makeeva Makeeva's 2018 photo has recently been reshared online to a Reddit page, where it has gone viral. The post, captioned "frozen methane bubbles in lake Baikal, the deepest lake on Earth," has received 40.1k upvotes on the platform.
Reddit users took to the comment section to respond to the post.
"Methane or not, I really want to go ice skating there," one Reddit user said.
"You do not want to be there when it melts," another said.
Others noted how bizarre the methane bubbles looked.
"This particular lake also happens to have one of the most intriguing alien sightings known to man," a Reddit user said.
If the methane trapped in the lake was released, it could potentially increase the average temperature of the entire planet, NASA reported in 2018.
But when this photo was taken, the amount of frozen methane was not enough to generate any changes in the atmosphere.
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However scientists do not know what would happen if temperatures around the lake increased, or if the water levels declined. This could potentially see greater release of methane.
Reddit users also expressed concern as to what would happen should all Lake Baikal's methane were released.
One user said: "Someone do the math to calculate the potential methane density based on lake capacity & methane concentration within a sq ft. Just how big is this cluster bomb & what are the potentialities? Also, if it's not coming out through here that methane is coming out somewhere else, right?"
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