What is this BubbleBlog about?

My research focuses on marine gas bubble emissions. Investigating them for more than 10 years now, I learned that the more we are searching for them the more we find them. Although this sounds logical, it means that they are not just a curiosity on Earth. We know now that they occur in all oceans and are related to a wide variety of geological settings. And as I am a geologist by education, I can also say that although we might not find gas bubble emission in that moment we are searching for them, they might have been active in the past – just some minutes before or in geological time scales like some millions of years ago.

In conclusion: Gas bubble emissions are very common on Earth!

However, I realized that many people do not even know about their existence. When I explain what I am working on, most people are actually surprised because they have never heard about this phenomenon before. That’s why I came up with the idea to provide some more general information about gas bubble emissions and to start this BubbleBlog.

The BubbleBlog will be about marine gas bubble emissions, what they are and where they come from. I will explain what “cold seeps” are and what happens at such sites at the seafloor. Also, I want to explain how we are working to find and investigate gas bubble emissions in the ocean. And then it is time to talk about quantities and what we know already about gas bubble emissions and what we don`t know yet. Finally, questions about the fate should be discussed. What happens with the gas bubbles after being released from the seafloor? Do they reach the atmosphere? And what is about their contribution to global warming?

I hope you enjoy reading this blog and thanks for your interest in the BubbleBlog. Please be aware that this is a subjective attempt to explain this scientific topic in a simplified way, hence it may not fulfil someone’s expectation of an all-encompassing disclosure. I also cannot guarantee for correctness but I am following the commitment to the general rules of good scientific practice. Also, science itself is by nature a progressive process by finding and correcting mistakes or misinterpretations.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are very welcome to contact me!