"On A Methane Mystery Tour in the Four Corners Region"

"Scientists, planes and instruments descend on San Juan Basin to find roots of the massive greenhouse gas hotspot."

"When you get a bunch of scientists together on a Friday morning to talk about hyperspectral imaging, isotopes and teragrams, you probably don’t expect a big turnout. Yet on April 17, some 200 people crowded a classroom at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, to hear scientists do just that. Okay, the crowds were not there for the technical stuff, per se, but to hear about the current effort to unravel the mysteries of the now notorious Four Corners Methane Hotspot, a massive concentration of potent greenhouse gas detected by a satellite between 2003 and 2009. The satellite eventually stopped functioning, but the hotspot is presumably still there. The study detailing the satellite's findings was released last year.

The crowd, a mix of industry and agency folks, environmentalists and regular citizens, was a bit anxious. Even the elevated concentrations in the hot spot zone pose no threat to human health, but methane is far more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Findings from this spring's investigation into the roots of the hotspot have the potential to inspire strict regulations on methane emissions from the fossil fuel extraction industries, the main driver of the region’s economy."

Jonathan Thompson reports for High Country News April 20, 2015.