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Ummmmm...DOOM!!!!!!!!!!
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[quote:Anonymous Coward 942322:MV8xMDYwMzYyXzE2OTA1NTQ4X0E0RkIzNUI2] [b]BP oil spill response hits methane ice hitch[/b] May 11, 11:07AM Austin Science Policy Examiner Steven Andrew A little known substance caused a big problem for the BP oil spill clean up effort last weekend. And crystals of it are believed to have fouled the containment dome posing potentially greater risk: The large containment dome did not work because it became clogged with methane hydrate crystals. There are like ice crystals but contain methane and water. These crystals are created when the methane gas comes into contact with water at the high pressure 5000 feet below the surface. It's unfortunate that so many will first learn of this enigmatic substance through a disaster: the same slick stuff could one day help fuel the world and relieve demand on over strained oil supplies. But perhaps the catastrophic introduction is appropriate in another way; methane solids may have contributed to some of the worst extinction events in the fossil record. At normal temperatures and pressures, methane is a colorless odorless gas and the primary constituent in natural gas (The odor of commercial natural gas is added to help alert residents of potentially flammable leaks). But deep below the ocean surface, under pressure and near the freezing point of water, bubbling methane gas gets trapped in a watery cage called a clathrate and, through the peculiar chemical properties of water, solidifies into a yellow tinged ice, with one big difference: it burns like an oily rag. The picture right courtesy of Penn State University shows a deposit of methane hydrate. The little pinkish inclusions in the yellow meth ice are a type of annelid, nick-named meth worms or ice worms, that make a living eating a type of special bacteria that thrive in extreme environments. It is unlikely that hydrates played any role in the accident itself. Sources in the offshore oil business have told the Examiner that the accident probably started with something going wrong with the cement plug way down the hole, allowing gas to escape up the drill pipe to the rig itself. Coming up the pipe, expanding as it rose, and catching fire at the surface, it would have shot out of the pipe like fire from a flame thrower. The end result was a tragic loss of life, a wrecked rig, and crumpled pipe spewing oil. The solution BP tried, illustrated left via the Wikipedia, was to lower a container over the leaking pipe section, trap the rising oil, and pump it to a tanker on the surface. But methane ice reportedly formed on the underside of the dome causing two problems. One, it clogged the aperture leading to the pipe and the surface. No opening, no way to pump the leaking oil out of the water. Two, methane ice is buoyant, it floats. A big enough build up of methane hydrate in the container would change the buoyancy of the 100 ton dome, making it more difficult to maneuver and possibly even destabilizing it. BP engineers are no doubt acutely aware that the combination of those two factors could potentially cause a surge of volatile methane gas up the containment pipe leading, perhaps, to a repeat of the original accident. Scientists estimate there are vast stores of methane hydrate buried in the deep ocean and lots more methane compounds residing in polar permafrost. Enough that if a feasible method could be found to recover it, methane hydrate might become a lucrative energy source. But recovery issues aside, like all fossil fuels methane is a potent greenhouse gas. It has many times the heat trapping properties of carbon dioxide. And when burned, methane produces water vapor and CO2; it just turns into two more greenhouse gases. Methane is such a powerful GHG that some scientists speculate it played a role in the greatest extinction event in the fossil record. Paleo-geologists believe that the Permian-Triassic mass extinction 250 million years ago was caused by catastrophic global warming. In some scenarios, this was the result of a double climate whammy: a giant flood basalt volcano in modern day Siberia with a caldera larger than Texas released prodigious quantities of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere raising global temperatures dramatically. The heat from the newly warmed air worked deep into the permafrost and ocean, and eventually released methane from its icy, watery prison. The released methane amplified the ongoing greenhouse effect, adding perhaps another 5 - 10 degrees F to the already over heating world. Oceans acidified wrecking the marine food chain at the planktonic base, forests withered, soil turned to dust and blew away. About 9 in 10 species perished from the land and sea in the Great Dying, including many fascinating mammal-like reptiles. It took millions of years for the biosphere to recover its former glory. When it finally did, a new kind of creature had risen to dominance: the dinosaurs. The good news is the disaster unfolding off the coast of Louisiana and Texas is not of that magnitude. Not even close. But for the families of those lost, and the owners of coastal property and businesses that may soon be destroyed by gooey black gold, this disaster is as big as it gets. [/quote]
Original Message
Now that the SuperDome was clogged with Methane Hydrates, we know that Methane IS indeed leaking out...
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