In a joint study carried out by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Michigan, it has been found that the Four Corners has high concentrations of the greenhouse gas methane.

The atmospheric methane is present across 2,500 square miles in the Four Corners and even in San Juan County, which was the largest concentration of methane in the US.

The study researchers have used data gathered before hydraulic fracturing became common. After assessing the data, the scientists said that the expected sources of the emissions include coal-bed methane production and leaking industry infrastructure.

Industry leader Tom Dugan of Dugan Production Corporation did not think that the report findings raise any concern. For thousands of years, gas has been seeping around at the place. Also, methane is part of life, further affirmed Dugan.

Christian Frankenberg, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, affirmed that the data from a European Space Agency satellite instrument was used to measure greenhouse gases. Using spectrometer, data was gathered from 2003 to 2009, which caught the attention of NASA scientists.

Initially, the scientists thought that such an immense concentration was an error. Frankenberg said the hot spot was so big that the scientists thought that there might be an error in their instruments. The measurements showed approximately 1.32 trillion cubic feet of methane produced or leaked into the atmosphere every year.

Methane is considered to be an important component of natural gas and majorly emissions come from natural gas and petroleum industries. "Methane is clean but if you lose it to the atmosphere it is 25 times more powerful (as a greenhouse gas) than carbon dioxide although it has a shorter life", affirmed Dugan, who thinks that climate change has increased significantly. For him, methane is good to have.