--- title: America's Small Four Corners Region is an Outsized Methane Hotspot description: One small spot in the U.S. Southwest is the surprising producer of the largest concentration of methane gas seen over the nation. canonical: https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/ author: Elizabeth Barber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-10T04:01:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:42:26.226Z article:section: Science og:title: U.S. Four Corners Emits Triple Standard Methane Levels og:description: One small spot in the U.S. Southwest is the surprising producer of the largest concentration of methane gas seen over the nation. og:url: https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaef9aa1f1323c573/69875fdaa988ca8cb06a9b54/methane-hot-spot_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2201 og:image:height: 1238 og:image:alt: Methane Hot Spot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Four Corners Emits Triple Standard Methane Levels twitter:description: One small spot in the U.S. Southwest is the surprising producer of the largest concentration of methane gas seen over the nation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaef9aa1f1323c573/69875fdaa988ca8cb06a9b54/methane-hot-spot_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # America's Tiny Four Corners Region Is an Outsized Methane Hotspot > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Elizabeth Barber](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Oct 10, 2014 4:01 AM UTC  This undated handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan, shows The Four Corners area — in red, left, is the major US hot spot for methane emissions. This undated handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan, shows The Four Corners area — in red, left, is the major US hot spot for methane emissions.AP by [Elizabeth Barber](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Oct 10, 2014 4:01 AM UTC One small spot in the U.S. Southwest is the surprising producer of the largest concentration of methane gas seen across the nation. Levels of methane over the Four Corners region are [more than triple](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-348) the standard ground-based estimate of the greenhouse gas, reports a joint study of satellite data by scientists at NASA and the University of Michigan. Methane is a heat-trapping gas whose increasing quantities in the atmosphere have fueled concerns about global climate change. The methane “hotspot,” seen on the map as a small red splotch, measures just 2,500 square miles at the junctures of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah (for scale, the state of Arizona is about 113,000 square miles). But the area generated an annual 0.59 million metric tons of methane between 2003 and 2009 — or, about as much methane as the entire coal, oil, and gas industries of the U.K. give off each year, says the report published in the scientific journal _Geophysical Research Letters._ The hotspot predates the Southwest’s controversial use of hydraulic fracturing. But the zone is over New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, home to thousands of wells that pull natural gas from coal beds, the study’s authors say. Natural gas is about 95 to 98% methane, and the authors suggest that the hotspot is best attributed to leaks and errors in the region’s natural gas production equipment. “While fracking has become a [focal point](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2014-10/uom-smm100914.php) in conversations about methane emissions, it certainly appears from this and other studies that in the U.S., fossil fuel extraction activities across the board likely emit higher than inventory estimates,” said Eric Kort, assistant professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan and the first author on the paper. “There’s so much coalbed methane in the Four Corners area, it doesn’t need to be that crazy of a leak rate to produce the emissions that we see,” added Kort. “A lot of the infrastructure is likely contributing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/"},"headline":"America's Tiny Four Corners Region Is an Outsized Methane Hotspot","datePublished":"2014-10-10T04:01:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:42:26.226Z","description":"But the hotspot predates the use of hydraulic fracking in the region, putting renewed attention on how older forms of natural gas production contribute to global climate change","url":"https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/","keywords":["climate change","global warming","methane"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaef9aa1f1323c573/69875fdaa988ca8cb06a9b54/methane-hot-spot_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Barber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/elizabeth-barber/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaef9aa1f1323c573/69875fdaa988ca8cb06a9b54/methane-hot-spot_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Methane Hot Spot","caption":"Methane Hot Spot","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3487638/four-corners-arizona-new-mexico-colorado-methane-gas-global-warming-climate-change-utah/","name":"America's Tiny Four Corners Region Is an Outsized Methane Hotspot"}}]}] ```