The rates of subsea permafrost degradation and occurrence of gas-migration pathways are key factors controlling the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) methane (CH₄) emissions, yet these factors still require assessment. It is thought that after inundation, permafrost-degradation rates would decrease over time and submerged thaw-lake taliks would freeze; therefore, no CH₄ release would occur for millennia. Here we present results of the first comprehensive scientific re-drilling to show that subsea permafrost in the near-shore zone of the ESAS has a downward movement of the ice-bonded permafrost table of ∼14 cm year⁻¹ over the past 31–32 years. Our data reveal polygonal thermokarst patterns on the seafloor and gas-migration associated with submerged taliks, ice scouring and pockmarks. Knowing the rate and mechanisms of subsea permafrost degradation is a prerequisite to meaningful predictions of near-future CH₄ release in the Arctic.

The hypothesis of a km-thick ice shelf covering the entire Arctic Ocean during peak glacial conditions was proposed nearly half a century ago. Floating ice shelves preserve few direct traces after their disappearance, making reconstructions difficult. Seafloor imprints of ice shelves should, however, exist where ice grounded along their flow paths. Here we present new evidence of ice-shelf groundings on bathymetric highs in the central Arctic Ocean, resurrecting the concept of an ice shelf extending over the entire central Arctic Ocean during at least one previous ice age. New and previously mapped glacial landforms together reveal flow of a spatially coherent, in some regions >1-km thick, central Arctic Ocean ice shelf dated to marine isotope stage 6 (∼140 ka). Bathymetric highs were likely critical in the ice-shelf development by acting as pinning points where stabilizing ice rises formed, thereby providing sufficient back stress to allow ice shelf thickening.

In 2011 and 2012, the interdisciplinary oceanic cruises of the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrent’ev and R/V Viktor Buinitskii were conducted in the framework of the project of targeted basic research of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. These studies identified strong methane jets because of the degradation of submarine permafrost rocks (SPRs), which is related to paleogeographical and modern factors of formation of the upper sedimentary sequence and also to structural peculiarities of the Arctic region. Large gas and water volumes are formed at the expense of the SPR defrosting; move along the upper sedimentary shelf sequence and along the surface of one or another layer (from coastal warmed areas to cooler deep areas); and form horizontally elongated convective cells, which activates destruction even at negative bottom temperatures. The methane emission will increase and become massive during the continuing SPR degradation.

The Russian sector of the arctic shelf is the longest in the world. Quite a lot of places of massive discharge of bubble methane from the seabed into the water column and further into the atmosphere were found there. This natural phenomenon requires an extensive complex of geological, biological, geophysical, and chemical studies. This article is devoted to aspects of the use of a complex of marine geophysical equipment applied in the Russian sector of the arctic shelf for the detection and study of areas of the water and sedimentary strata with increased saturation with natural gases, as well as a description of some of the results obtained. This complex contains a single-beam scientific high-frequency echo sounder and multibeam system, a sub-bottom profiler, ocean-bottom seismographs, and equipment for continuous seismoacoustic profiling and electrical exploration. The experience of using the above equipment and the examples of the results obtained in the Laptev Sea have shown that these marine geophysical methods are effective and of particular importance for solving most problems related to the detection, mapping, quantification, and monitoring of underwater gas release from the bottom sediments of the shelf zone of the arctic seas, as well as the study of upper and deeper geological roots of gas emission and their relationship with tectonic processes. Geophysical surveys have a significant performance advantage compared to any contact methods. The large-scale application of a wide range of marine geophysical methods is essential for a comprehensive study of the geohazards of vast shelf zones, which have significant potential for economic use.