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Eventually they got stuck in the Sudd, a giant swampy region in South Sudan.

If it does, Palmer says, warming will beget more methane emissions from the Sudd, which in turn could fuel more warming and rains—a positive feedback loop.

Last year, following earlier work from Palmer that first highlighted the Sudd as a methane source, South Sudan proposed achieving its climate goals by finishing the Jonglei Canal, abandoned in the 1980s, which would divert water from the Sudd to Egypt.

But draining the Sudd might just replace its methane emissions with carbon dioxide generated as newly exposed peat decomposes, while doing immeasurable damage to its ecosystem, Darbyshire says.

Studies are now implicating the Sudd in South Sudan, the continent’s largest swamp and a region researchers have been unable to study on the ground because of the long-term conflict in the region.