Launch of MEFISTO, the PRIN PNRR project to study natural CH4 emissions in the marine coastal environment

The project's kick off meeting was successfully held online on 26 January 2024.

MEFISTO, coordinated by OGS and developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology - INGV, is financially supported by the European union through the "Fund for the National Research Programme and Research Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN)" in the framework of the NRRP - Nex Generation EU Mission 4 "Education and Research" to define the actual contribution of the marine coastal areas to the atmospheric methane (CH₄) budget.

The scarcity of data concerning CH₄ fluxes in coastal areas negatively affects the exact calculation of this greenhouse gas atmospheric budget, whose accuracy is vital for verifying potential reductions in emissions linked to the adoption of effective climate mitigation strategies. In fact, CH4 released from coastal seafloor can escape directly into the atmosphere by rapidly bypassing the water column through bubble transport.

Over the next two years, MEFISTO will specifically focus on reducing uncertainties in the estimation of natural CH₄ fluxes in such environments. The study, combining classical physical, chemical, and molecular methods with innovative hydroacoustic approaches, will be aimed to assess which forcings favour or prevent the release of this gas into the atmosphere in two Italian shallow coastal areas: a seepage zone recently identified in the Gulf of Trieste and centred on the Bardelli outcrop (Northern Adriatic Sea) and the hydrothermal vent area off the Panarea Island (Aeolian Archipelago, Southern Tyrrhenian Sea).