At a Glance

Massive craters created by methane blowouts centuries ago are still leaking the greenhouse gas.The melting of other ice sheets could cause similar eruptions in the future.

While it's been centuries since more than 100 giant craters on the Arctic sea floor were created by massive eruptions of methane gas, the craters are still leaking methane — a major contributor to global warming, according to a new study.

Nearly 12,000 years after the initial explosions, thestudy, published in the journal Science, said it's important to understand why they occurred because .

While scientists have known about some of the craters since the 1990s, the study revealed, according to a release. New technology also provides more detailed imaging for interpretation.

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There are more than 600 gas flares that have been identified in and around these craters, releasing the potent greenhouse gas, though not nearly the level that occurred following deglaciation.

For centuries, more than 6,500 feet of ice kept the methane gas in deep hydrocarbon reservoirs from escaping. It then built up in the sediment, creating high-pressure conditions. As the climate warmed, the ice sheet collapsed and released large amounts of methane to create the huge craters.

It's similar to a pressure cooker, saidstudy lead author Karin Andreassen, a marinegeologistand geophysicist at the Arctic University of Norway. Pressure releases must be controlled, or the result will be a kitchen disaster. With the methane build-up, it's believed that the pressure built for thousands of years.

"We think that the forces ," Andreassen told Live Science.

The new research could help predict what might happen to the hydrocarbonscurrently trapped beneath the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Antarctica's Glacial Melt

Station Bernardo O'Higgins, Antarctica

In this Jan. 22, 2015 photo, Gentoo penguins stand on rocks near the Chilean station Bernardo O'Higgins, Antarctica. Here on the Antarctic peninsula, where the continent is warming the fastest because the land sticks out in the warmer ocean, 49 billion tons of ice is lost a year according to NASA. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)