This Really Has Me Frightened... METHANE HYDRATE

Will scientists please step forward and assuage our fears regarding the current gulf catastrophy or let us know the possible results of this accidental release of methane in its current proportions in relation to the gulf waters.


...' Updated. David DeGraw is talking about the potential for a “supersonic tsunami” resulting from a methane explosion. (The blowout site is above a massive underground methane reservoir):

[...] Is this all possible? I’m not sure. Given the new AP report revealing that “oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane” and oceanographer John Kessler’s statement that “This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” I would think this is a serious and legitimate concern that urgently calls for much more investigation...'

[link to catastrophist.wordpress.com]




...'According to the United Nations report in 2007 on natural disasters, nine of the ten worst disasters historically resulted from climatic disturbances...'

[link to wadcconference.com]




...'Methane clathrate, also known commonly (albeit incorrectly) as methane hydrate, is a form of water ice that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure. Potentially large deposits of methane clathrate have been found under sediments on the ocean floors of the Earth, although there are many orders of magnitudes in between the estimates of various experts.[6] In fact, the existence of vast oceanic methane clathrate formation is uncertain and usually only based on reflective seismology and pieces larger than 10 cm have only been recovered from three sites.[7]

The sudden release of large amounts of natural gas from methane clathrate deposits in runaway climate change could be a cause of past, future, and present climate changes. The release of this trapped methane is a potential major outcome of a rise in temperature; it is thought that this is a main factor in the global warming of 6°C that happened during the end-Permian extinction,[8] as methane is much more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (despite its atmospheric lifetime of around 12 years, it has a global warming potential of 62 over 20 years and 23 over 100 years). The theory also predicts this will greatly affect available oxygen content of the atmosphere...'

[link to en.wikipedia.org]




...'Dr. Gregory Ryskin, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University, has also claimed that any large explosion could release large amounts of methane - a substance that is flowing freely from the stricken well along with the oil - and cause a methane explosion of apocalyptic proportions...'

[link to www.ngoilgas.com]




Methane-driven oceanic eruptions and mass extinctions
Gregory Ryskin*,1
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA

Focusing on the Permian-Triassic boundary, ca. 251 Ma, I explore the possibility that mass extinction can be caused by an extremely fast, explosive release of dissolved methane (and other dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) that accumulated in the oceanic water masses prone to stagnation and anoxia (e.g., in silled basins). The mechanism of the explosive release is the same as in the Lake Nyos disaster of 1986, i.e., a water-column eruption caused by the interplay of buoyancy forces and exsolution of dissolved gas. The eruption brings to the surface deep anoxic waters that cause extinctions in the marine realm. Terrestrial extinctions are caused by explosions and conflagrations that follow the massive release of methane (the air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%) and by the eruption-triggered floods. This scenario accounts well for the available data, and may be relevant to other phenomena.


Key Words: mass extinctions • methane • Permian-Triassic boundary

[link to geology.geoscienceworld.org]




...'Ryskin calculated that some 10,000 gigatons of dissolved methane could have accumulated in water near the ocean floor under high pressure. If released quickly, perhaps triggered by an earthquake, the resulting cloud of methane would have an explosive force about 10,000 times greater than the world's entire stockpile of nuclear weapons. The huge conflagrations plus flooding and overturned oceans would cause the extinctions. (Approximately 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were lost.)

"That amount of energy is absolutely staggering," said Ryskin. "As soon as one accepts this mechanism, it becomes clear that if it happened once it could happen again. I have little doubt there will be another methane-driven eruption -- though not on the same scale as 251 million years ago -- unless humans intervene."...'

[link to www.sciencedaily.com]



Northwestern University Newsfeed
Contact: Samira Puskar at (847) 491-5753 or [email protected]
Gregory Ryskin on "Did Methane Explosions Cause Mass Extinctions?"

The cause of mass extinctions has long been a mystery, but now a new hytpothesis could explain how they happen. Gregory Ryskin, associate professor of chemical engineering at Northwestern University, believes explosions of methane erupting from the ocean could be to blame, and these eruptions start when methane accumulates in deep ocean regions of stagnant water.
Ryskin: Then any kind of disturbance which will move some parcel of water upward will cause this methane to exsolve, just like carbon dioxide exsolves when we open a bottle of champagne. Eventually this effect will reach the surface of the ocean and methane will be expelled into the atmosphere. It is almost inevitable that this will create mixtures which are explosive, just like a gas leak in a kitchen.

Ryskin says methane eruptions could kill many species.
Ryskin: The terrestrial life would be destroyed by explosions and conflagrations while the life in the ocean could be destroyed simply by the fact that the deep ocean waters, which have no oxygen, would rise to the surface and this water is poisonous for the surface life.

According to Ryskin the phenomenon could have biblical connections.
Ryskin: When eruption occurs, I expect fountains of the gas-water mixture to rise from the ocean. And the description in the Genesis chapter 7 fits this exactly. So that’s a rather amazing fact, which suggests to me that this may be a reflection of some very old actual observation perhaps seven or eight thousand years ago when the Black Sea may have erupted.

According to Ryskin, eruptions could still be brewing today.
Ryskin: This mechanism has operated throughout the history of the earth and there is no reason why it should have stopped by now. It is very likely that somewhere in the ocean there is a region where methane is accumulating...

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9/4/03
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