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Methane escaping from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines will spew more of the climate-changing gas into the atmosphere than any previous known single event.

It will likely become the biggest known gas leak to take place over a short period of time and highlights the problem of large methane escapes elsewhere around the world, scientists say.

“From what I have seen this is an unprecedented loss to the atmosphere of fossil methane in a very short time from a concentrated source,” said President of the US National Academy of Sciences Marcia McNutt. 

She oversaw American government efforts to assess the breadth of the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Methane acts quickly to heat the Earth. The fact that it disappears faster from the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, “is probably small consolation to the citizens of Florida and other places who are already being hit by more frequent and more deadly tropical storms, supercharged by an ocean superheated by greenhouse gas releases to the atmosphere,” Ms McNutt said.

There is still uncertainty in estimating total damage, but researchers say vast plumes of this potent greenhouse gas will have significant detrimental impacts on the climate. 

Immediate harm to marine life and fisheries in the Baltic Sea and to human health will also result because benzene and other trace chemicals are typically present in natural gas, researchers say.

When methane leaks naturally from vents on the ocean floor, the quantities are usually small and the gas is mostly absorbed by seawater. 

“But this is not a normal situation for gas release,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson. “We’re not talking about methane bubbling up to the surface like seltzer water, but a plume of rushing gas,” he said. 

Mr Jackson and other scientists estimate that between 50% and nearly 100% of total methane emitted from the pipeline will reach the atmosphere.