Many visual feasts that occur naturally in nature are beyond the imagination of any great artist. Such a sight you can witness in the northern part of Canada during winter. The bubbles, half-frozen in white, are like a work of art in a glass vase on a frozen lake. Thousands of such bubbles can be seen in this lake. Methane, one of the greenhouse gases, is behind these, which appear in the form of elliptical diaphonic spheres.
A feast of methane bubbles
This view can be seen in Canada’s Abraham Lake. Lake Abraham is a body of water that emits methane like all other bodies of water in the world. But it’s in the dead of winter that the released methane sets the scene for a rare visual feast. As the lake’s organic matter decomposes and sinks to the bottom, these microbes feed on it. Methane gas is emitted from the sediments that are broken down by microorganisms.
Methane gas that normally bubbles up into the atmosphere becomes part of the greenhouse gas emissions from Earth. The freezing temperature of methane is minus 182 degrees Celsius. Therefore, methane does not freeze or rise to the top even in extreme winters. But as the water at the top freezes, the methane bubbles get trapped in between and the water layers around them create a visually appealing work of art.
Lakes of Fire
After winter, the snow melts and these methane gases come out with a loud noise. A similar phenomenon is observed in the area including permafrost. In such areas, many videos are seen of people bringing snow to the fire and causing it to ignite. But what sets Canada’s Lake Abraham apart from all these areas is the crystal-like surface that remains after the water freezes. Because of this transparent surface, methane bubbles are visible outside.
Outside of Canada, similarly transparent lakes can be found in the Arctic. But because the presence of soil in the Arctic is less, and therefore less biological, than in Canada, bubbles like those seen in Lake Abraham are not seen in Arctic lakes. For this reason, taking into account the ease of access and the beauty of the view, Abraham Lake itself stands in front of the problem because of this rare sight.