
This map shows anomalous U.S. methane emissions (or how much the emissions differ from average background concentrations) for 2003 to 2009, as measured by the European Space Agency's SCIAMACHY instrument
Using two airborne spectrometers flying 3,000 to 10,000 feet above the ground, researchers identified and measured more than 250 individual sources leaking methane plumes in the Four Regions region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The majority of leaks are from gas wells, storage tanks, pipelines and processing plants used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations for natural gas.
"The sources emitted the gas at rates ranging from a few pounds to 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms) per hour," NASA said in a statement. The study said as much as two-thirds of the methane could be spewing from only about 25 locations.
Only a handful of the 250 leaks were caused by natural seepage from underground formations, and one was a vent from a coal mine, according to researchers with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.












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