Want to see what methane does???

great! now methane doom.

makes things go BooM!

meth, eth, pro, bute. thats how i remembered the CH chain in uni. methane is CH2.

Yes there is a massive leak and if there is a full blowout or seafloor collapse...

Its over, good night..

Did Asteroid-Induced Firestorm Destroy the Dinosaurs?
By Michael Paine
Special to space.com
posted: 03:10 pm ET
18 November 1999

Dinosaurs may have met their demise in a global firestorm of methane gas triggered by an asteroid impact, a team of scientists reports in the latest issue of Geo-Marine Letters.

The methane gas was released from the Earth by the asteroid collision and ignited by lightning, says Naval Research Laboratory scientist Barton Hurdle.

Hurdle told space.com that he and several colleagues put forth the idea -- a fiery end to Earth's greatest land creatures -- before various teams of researchers in 1991 and 1992 theorized that a crater discovered in Mexico was the site of an asteroid impact responsible for the mass extinctions.

"It shook up the ocean, generated tsunamis that ruptured pockets of methane that were trapped under gas hydrates, and it also created slumping -- a sliding down of the ocean bottom -- that released (the methane) too," Hurdle said.

"This stuff came out, lightning set it afire, and it burned," Hurdle explained. "There were fantastic quantities of this stuff."

The theoretical fire would have burned near the ground and high into the atmosphere, Hurdle said, enveloping much of the planet as shock waves from the impact moved through the planet and dislodged methane around the globe.

"The atmosphere itself would have been on fire," Hurdle and his colleagues wrote in the paper.

The fire would have incinerated land creatures, he said, while decreasing oxygen supplies and increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"There was a lot of soot, and that soot has been found," Hurdle said.

The theory, also featured in this week's issue of New Scientist magazine, stems from the discovery of vast deposits of methane, a carbon-based molecule, under the sea floor that are locked in crystals of water ice, forming "methane hydrate."

Marine geologist Erwin Suess and co-workers from the Research Center for Marine Geosciences in Germany estimate the total amount of carbon locked in these deposits exceeds the amount in all of the known coal, oil and gas reservoirs. What is more, methane hydrate is very unstable and releases methane if the temperature or pressure rises slightly above that existing under the seafloor.

Interest, and skepticism

Brown University's Peter Schultz, who studies impact craters and the processes that create them, says Hurdle's idea definitely merits further study.

"The observation that there are these methane traps on the bottom of the ocean is pretty well established," Schultz told space.com. He said that while an ocean impact could certainly release this methane, he's not sure if the affect would be over a large enough area to release enough methane to cause the scenario Hurdle describes.

"My reservation is whether or not the shock wave could have released as much methane as they say," Schultz said.

And as planetary scientists John Lewis and Sidney van Den Bergh point out, there are several other dire consequences of the impact, (the site is known as the Chicxulub crater), that could explain the extinction of the dinosaurs. The methane hydrate proposal is seen by many researchers as credible, but may in fact have been a nail in the coffin rather than the exact cause.

Evidence and likelihoods

There is ample evidence of a global firestorm at the time of the Chicxulub impact. Iridium-bearing clay in the boundary layer between the Cretaceous Period (a time when dinosaurs roamed) and Tertiary Period (the subsequent geologic time frame when dinosaurs seem to have disappeared) contains soot.

The quantity and composition of the soot corresponds to the burning of at least 50 percent of the world's forests. Although Hurdle's idea that methane fires were responsible for this firestorm is plausible, there is another simpler explanation.

The Chicxulub impact would have launched millions of tons of rock into ballistic space flight. Over the following hour this debris would have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, causing millions of brilliant "shooting stars." The radiant heat from these meteors alone would have been sufficient to ignite the trees around the world.

This idea is supported by the discovery of charcoal in tsunami deposits near the impact site. The best explanation may be that the trees were ignited by radiant heat, then swamped soon after by the waves.

The shock wave from the impact would indeed have triggered massive earthquakes in the region and indirectly triggered other earthquakes around the globe. A tsunami would have formed from the impact, which occurred in a shallow sea. The giant waves would also have been generated by the earthquakes and undersea landslides triggered by the shock wave.

"Megawaves emanating from an impact site would circuit the earth at high speeds and cause worldwide disruption in the entire ocean in a single day," Hurdle and his colleagues wrote.

Acid rain and a long, long winter

Researchers say the impact fireball and the forest fires would have created huge quantities of nitrogen oxides, which react with water vapor to form acid rain. By chance, the Chicxulub asteroid struck rocks with an unusually large proportion of calcium sulfate. This would have generated sulfur dioxide -- another source of acid rain. There are several signs of a massive dose of acid rain at the time, including sudden weathering of continental rocks.

The dust thrown up by the impact, the soot generated by the firestorms and the smog formed from the oxides of nitrogen and sulfur particles would have blocked sunlight for many months. The surface of the Earth would have plunged to freezing conditions -- typically 70 degrees Fahrenheit below normal -- and photosynthesis would not have been possible, even if plants had survived the fires and acid rain.

Global warming

After several months the dust would have settled and sunlight would have begun heating up the land. Now the greenhouse effect would have taken over due to the excess of carbon dioxide created by the fires and the melting of limestone rocks at the impact site.

Methane released from ocean sediments could have added to the greenhouse effect. It has been estimated that the surface temperatures on Earth were at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for hundreds of thousands of years after the impact.

So dinosaurs, if they were not consumed in a firestorm, would have had to live through a torturous sequence of events -- from the barbecue to the freezer, to a dip in acid and then a hothouse baking. Regardless of whether Hurdle's idea is correct, it agrees with mounting evidence that suggests how a massive asteroid impact at Chicxulub may have been the fatal blow to the dinosaurs, as well as 50 percent of all the Earth's species.

Good goddamn....

Thread: ***UPDATE*** OIL SPILL IS EQUAL PARTS METHANE AND OIL *** OIL SPILL METHANE WILL TURN THE OCEANS TO ACID and could make the ATMOSPHERE IGNITE???? DOO

If you don't have a passport, get a f_cking passport.

LoL...

A passport off earth???

[link to gltrs.grc.nasa.gov]

Methane Hydrates: More Than a Viable Aviation Fuel Feedstock Option

The unabated release of methane (10 to 20 times more detrimental as a greenhouse gas than CO2) sequestered in these hydrates could impact the planet to the point of extinction of life as we understand it. Considering the predicted Earth thermal events, the stability of methane hydrates, and the impact of methane on the environment, the question is not will this methane be released, but when. It is suggested in this report that enhanced efforts be placed on a comprehensive program to locate, assess, and recover the sequestered methane at surface levels to meet the energy demand rather than permitting natural release into the environment

I think it's best if they don't make an attempt to nuke that leak....

Me too

DOOM this size only brings one response from me..."Don't sing it, Bring it."

[link to www-eaps.mit.edu]

Oceanic Methane Hydrates :

An Unconventional Energy Resource


Methane hydrate is an ice-like form of methane and water that is stable at the pressure and temperature conditions characteristic of permafrost areas and marine sediments on continental margins. By volume, methane hydrate concentrates methane by more than 100 times compared to gaseous methane at standard temperature and pressure. The high concentrations of methane in gas hydrate deposits and the relative accessibility of gas hydrates render them an attractive target for exploration for unconventional hydrocarbon resources. The huge potential size of this energy source has sparked interest from the U.S., Japan, India, and other countries. The destabilization of methane hydrate deposits may also exacerbate global warming events and contribute to seafloor collapse or large submarine landslides.

Our research in gas hydrates includes: (1) ocean drilling and multidisciplinary oceanographic expeditions that use physical, chemical, and biological measurements to quantify fluid and energy fluxes in gas hydrate reservoirs; (2) first-principles numerical modeling to assess hydrate reservoir evolution, sediment clogging during gas hydrate formation, renewability of hydrate resources, and the impact of climate and tectonic/sedimentary events; and (3) collaborative laboratory measurements of the mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, and seismic properties of silt, sand, and clay sediments containing synthetic gas hydrate.





This image shows gas hydrate (white, ice-like material) that has formed under a rock overhang as methane bubbles are emitted at the seafloor (bottom of photo). This photo, which is approximately 1 m across, was taken by the Alvin submarine at ~2150 m water depth during a cruise to the Blake Ridge (Atlantic Ocean, offshore the Southeastern U.S.A.) in 2001. Normally, gas hydrate forms in the sediments, not near the seafloor.

Contact:

Carolyn Ruppel ([email protected]), 54-316

Research Geophysicist, U.S.G.S., National Methane Hydrates Program, Woods Hole, MA
Visiting Scientist, ERL, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, MIT

[link to www.aade.org]

AADE-03-NTCE-04
Methane Hydrate as a Future Energy Source: Framing the Debate

As stated in the Congressional Research Service website:
“Sea floor stability refers to the susceptibility of the sea
floor to collapse and slide as the result of gas hydrate
disassociation. The safety issue refers to petroleum drilling
and production hazards that may occur in association with
gas hydrates in both offshore and onshore environments.
The safety issue affects current oil and gas production as
well as being of concern to possible hydrate development
in the future” (Ref. 2). Some of the ancillary problems
attributable to Methane Hydrate dissociation are also
manifested in conventional oil and gas drilling and
production operations. Seafloor stability therefore
becomes a major hurdle to overcome. In fact, some
believe that many current conventional deepwater surface
operations could result in seafloor instability, and even
seafloor collapse as a result of Methane Hydrate
dissociations.

Several events could occur and cannot be ignored:
§ Uncontrolled gas releases during drilling.
§ Collapse of well casings, and gas leakage to the
surface.
§ Subsidence of general sea floor infrastructures,
including pipelines.
§ Dissociation of Methane Hydrate while cementing due
to exothermic reactions.
§ Dissociation of Methane Hydrate while producing due
to the higher temperature of produced fluids from
deeper horizons.
In the marine environment, gas leakage to the surface
around the outside of the well casing may result in local
sea floor subsidence and the loss of support for
foundations of drilling platforms. The industry has
conducted seminars regarding some of these issues, and
considers some of the safety related issues to be crucial to
the development of conventional deepwater hydrocarbon
resources 9.

Seafloor Stability: This is possibly the greatest hurdle
related to Methane Hydrate development. Reservoir
subsidence is already an enormous problem in
conventional oil and gas production. In some cases, even
very deep reservoir subsidence has been transferred to
the surface. Given that Methane Hydrate provides the
cementation matrix mechanism for very soft muds and
sands, then it follows that recovery of significant amounts
of Methane Hydrate could result not only in subsidence,
but possibly catastrophic reservoir collapse, eventually
manifesting itself at the seabed. In the example of the
Mallik cores, it is interesting to note that the Methane
Hydrate product was indicated as high as 80% by
volume10

Death by earth farts

what a way to go

[link to www.physics.rutgers.edu]

Catastrophic Methane Hydrate Release Mitigation

This topic falls under the category of abrupt climate change as will be clear shortly. Methane hydrates or clathrates are combinations of water and methane in the form
of an ice-like matrix. The methane is the result of the action of methanogenic bacteria on sediment over thousands of years. The methane is kept in an ice form where appropriate combinations of temperature and pressure exist.

Methane hydrates are widespread in sea sediments hundreds of meters below the sea floor along the outer continental margins and are also found in Arctic permafrost. Some eposits are close to the ocean floor and at water depths as
shallow as 150 m, although at low latitudes they are generally only found below 500 m. The deposits can be 300-600 m thick and cover large horizontal areas. A nearby
deposit nearly 500 km in length is found along the Blake Ridge off the coast of N.C. at depths of 2000-4000 m.

The total quantity of methane hydrates in the ocean sediment is estimated to be around 10,000 GtC. The methane hydrates in sediment considered part of U.S. territory alone could supply U.S. natural gas needs for 1000 years. Because of this enormous quantity, methane hydrates are being investigated as an energy source to replace petroleum and conventional sources of natural gas, although an extraction technology for ocean sediments does not presently exist.

There is some evidence that massive releases of methane from ocean sediment hydrate deposits may have been indirectly responsible for ending some of the ice
ages. Were such releases to occur today because of warming of the oceans or as a result of seismic events, the result could be a sudden rise in atmospheric temperature, triggering feedback mechanisms that might lead to rapid melting of polar ice.

In the slides, the example of a 1 GtC release was used. That represents 0.01% of the total methane hydrates in the ocean. The quantity degassed to the atmosphere 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age is now believed to be around 4 GtC as methane or 0.04%. The average temperature of the Earth increased from 30°F to 60°F within a few decades. The radiative forcing from the methane alone would
have been insufficient to cause more than a 3°F increase. It is thought that feedback effects from additional methane released from melting permafrost, carbon dioxide and water vapor contributed to the rest of the warming. But the initial methane hydrate release from the ocean may have been the catalyst.

All of the conditions that may have led to the methane hydrate release 15,000 years ago do not exist today. Sea levels were much lower and thus, the pressure on the
sediments was less. However, there is some evidence that ocean currents that impinge on ocean sediments are getting warmer, especially in the Arctic. Global warming is thus a possible triggering mechanism for massive methane hydrate
release in today’s climate.

What causes release of methane hydrates is still poorly understood. Warm waters may destabilize the hydrate zone. Hydrates on the surface of the ocean floor on a ridge may then degass. The sediment may then become unstable and slide down the ridge, exposing other layers of methane hydrate, accelerating the release. As an example, the Storegga slump off the coast of Norway 8000 years ago could have released between 1 and 4 GtC as methane.

Alternatively, an undersea earthquake today, say off the Blake Ridge or the coast of Japan or California might loosen and cause some of the sediment to slide down the
ridge or slump, exposing the hydrate layer to the warmer water. That in turn could cause a chain reaction of events, leading to the release of massive quantities of methane.

Another possibility is drilling and other activities related to exploration and recovery of methane hydrates as an energy resource. The hydrates tend to occur in the pores of sediment and help to bind it together. Attempting to remove the hydrates may cause the sediment to collapse and release the hydrates. So, it may not take thousands of years to warm the ocean and the sediments enough to cause
massive releases, only lots of drilling rigs.

Returning to the 4 GtC release scenario, assume such a release occurs over a oneyear period sometime in the next 50 years as result of slope failure. According to the Report of the Methane Hydrate Advisory Committee, “Catastrophic slope failure appears to be necessary to release a sufficiently large quantity of methane rapidly
enough to be transported to the atmosphere without significant oxidation or dissolution.”

In this event, methane will enter the atmosphere as methane gas. It will have a residence time of several decades and a global warming potential of 62 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

This would be the equivalent of 248 GtC as carbon dioxide or 31 times the annual man-made GHG emissions of today. Put another way, this would have the impact of nearly 30 years worth of GHG warming all at once. The result would almost
certainly be a rapid rise in the average air temperature, perhaps as much as 3°F immediately. This might be tolerable if that’s as far as things go. But, just like
15,000 years ago, if the feedback mechanisms kick in, we can expect rapid melting of
Greenland and Antarctic ice and an overall temperature increase of 30°F.

For point of reference, the average temperature of the Earth (atmosphere, land and top layer of the ocean) in 2004 is around 60°F. The methane hydrate release projected here would raise the temperature to around 90°F or more. Such high temperatures would undoubtedly destabilize all of the other methane hydrates in the ocean and arctic permafrost, some 10,000 GtC or 620,000 GtC equivalent as carbon dioxide. This would have the impact of 78,000 years worth of GHG warming over a few decades. The temperatures reached and sustained would most likely cause a rapid die off in ocean phytoplankton and other sea life as well as most land
plants and animals, including humans. The result would be a mass extinction and mark a major transition point in the Earth’s geological history.

Although a 1000 or 10,000 GtC methane release in one year or over several decades is very unlikely, a 4 GtC release is entirely plausible. Even if the feedback mechanisms that were operative 15,000 years ago became partly active, the outcome could be just as disastrous as the scenario outlined above.

Gaskill said that if any massive releases of methane from methane hydrates were to occur, attempts should be made to ignite and burn the methane gas at the ocean’s
surface. By converting the methane to carbon dioxide, the threat of abrupt climate change is reduced by a factor of 62, to less than one-years worth of GHG emissions.
Even if the mitigation effort is only partly successful, say 75% is converted to carbon dioxide, the remaining methane, equivalent to an 8-year pulse of all present
day GHG emissions in a single year might still spell trouble, but it would be far preferable to the nightmare scenarios outlined above.

Combustion could be accomplished by aerial release and ignition of distillate fuel over the area where the methane is entering the atmosphere. There are several potential problems with this approach. The area to be covered may be too large to effectively treat in this way. Advection may also make continuous burning difficult. Dr. MacCracken pointed out that the methane level in the air at the surface might be too low to ignite. This would, of course depend on how fast the gas is being released.

Regardless, the potential for massive methane release from sediments represents such a significant threat that emergency mitigation plans like the one suggested here
need to be prepared. The Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000, Public Law 106-193 does not address such catastrophic scenarios and we are unaware of anyone working on such plans

We have ignition.

Fascinating theory. This is worthy of a pin.

So?? Al Gore's Brit Butt Buddies did it to increase likeliness of global warming in the face of volcanic ash induced cooling??

This has nothing to do with AL Gore...

I keep hearing that...

Al Gore said that man-made global warming was going to melt the polar ice caps and release methane hydrates which would give global warming a steroid injection...

Hes not wrong about the methane hydrates, that would give global warming a massive injection...And that is proven science...

The bigger worry here is what happened to the dinosaurs...

A asteroid hit the ocean causing a massive methane release and that methane was released into the atmosphere and lighting ignited it causing a massive firestorm...What lived through the firestorm was killed very soon after from a massive global warming..

Methane is truly bad news...

The true possibilities of this are scary, to say the least...

Bottom line here is there is no agenda, the agenda was we allowed BP to drill for methane instead of oil..Yes, they were looking for methane and now have a massive displacement underway, which could result in a seabed collapse, which would release a extinction level event..

No carbon taxes
No emission cuts
No Al Gore
No SUVs

Game over!

Where ya going?

Mars?

[link to news.discovery.com]
Volatile Methane Ice Could Spark More Drilling Disasters
Energy companies used to avoid methane hydrates no matter what. Now the industry may be drilling right into danger.

By Eric Niiler | Wed May 12, 2010 07:00 AM ET

The blame-game has reached hurricane force.

On Capitol Hill, executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton are pointing fingers at each other, while in Louisiana, Coast Guard officials are grilling lower-level managers from the same companies. But the rush to figure out went went wrong from an engineering perspective misses the bigger picture, experts say.

The decision by BP and many other energy companies to drill through areas of unusual ice-like crystals -- called methane hydrates -- is a risky one fraught with huge consequences for failure.

"Methane hydrates are a geological hazard, and it's been well established for decades that they are dangerous," said Richard Charter, head of the Defenders of Wildlife marine program and member of the Department of Energy's methane hydrates advisory panel. "Until 10 or 15 years ago, the industry would avoid them no matter what."

Now, Charter said, the rush to produce more oil for domestic consumption has forced companies like BP to take bigger risks by drilling in deep waters that are a breeding ground of hydrates. And they worry that a new drilling push into the Arctic Ocean -- which President Barack Obama has authorized to begin next month -- could expose a fragile and remote environment to additional risks from catastrophic oil spills.

Methane hydrates only exist in cold water -- just above or below freezing -- and at the undersea pressures found in deep water off the continental shelf. "It's a lot like ice," said William Dillon, a retired marine geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Mass. "The conditions that form them exist at the seafloor and in the sediments below."

This slushy mixture of sea water and methane gas makes drilling more complicated. For one, the presence of methane hydrates in sediment makes the seafloor unstable. That's why BP was using a high-tech drilling rig that was positioned like a helicopter on the surface.

And if hydrates are warmed by oil moving through pipes, they can turn into methane gas (known as "kicks" to drillers) that can shoot back up the drilling pipe and ignite the rig. Investigators are already focused on that scenario as a possible cause of the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.

Several marine geologists told Discovery News that the location of methane hydrate fields are well-mapped by petroleum companies and the Minerals Management Service, which regulates the industry. Researchers aboard scientific drilling ships say they avoid methane hydrate fields because of the inherent risks.

In 2003, Unocal abandoned plans to drill in the deep water off Indonesia for the same reason. China has delayed plans for offshore oil development after finding large hydrate fields, but many industry officials say they can engineer proper safeguards.

Arthur Johnson heads up Hydrate Energy International, a firm dedicated to exploiting the potential energy source of hydrates based in Kenner, La. He doesn't believe that they caused the blast.

"Based on everything I've seen, there's no way naturally-occurring hydrates had anything to do with loss of the well," Johnson said.

Methane hydrates only exist 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the seafloor, Johnson said. The BP drill went down to 18,000 feet.

Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and oil industry consultant, disagrees. He's been interviewing workers who were aboard the rig before it blew and said the BP platform shut down several weeks before the accident because of hydrate problems.

"Whether it was either methane hydrate or gas, it doesn't really make a difference," Bea said. "It has unanticipated, undesirable effects. Based on my interviews and investigation, (methane) hydrate seeped into the core."

Bea and others say the industry's drilling and spill cleanup technology hasn't caught up with the economic imperative to produce more oil.

In June, Shell Oil plans a series of exploratory wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas north of Alaska. That region is remote and lacks the kind of spill gear that is being deployed in the Gulf of Mexico. While the White House has delayed plans for oil drilling off the coasts of California and Virginia, the Alaska project is still on for now.

Eric Niiler is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

CALL ME BY NAMES...
CASSANDRA will fit me:


138.
Location. Rosario, Argentina
Date: August 2 2001
Time: night
That night, the visitors summoned M, and she felt herself traveling through a tunnel of "water" or something that felt very similar to water. She soon found herself in a jungle area that was very hot. Suddenly she found herself in a mansion-type structure all white in color, it gave her the impression of being in a hospital. Inside she found numerous children of both sexes that were apparently living there. The children were barefooted and wore white loose fitting outfits. She also saw human adults that identified themselves as "instructors". The children resembled humans but with some alien traits, almost like hybrids. The aliens told her that soon they would be leaving the earth due to the coming chaos and cataclysm. She saw an image of a huge explosion and many injured persons.
HC addendum
Source: Horacio Roberto, Nuevos Tiempos, Argentina
Type: G

and a part of the other informations you should have collected as well by yourselves:

Yes...An asteroid killed the dinosaurs and saurians...
But,you should know that this is a RECURRENT phenomenon.Read:
14.
Location. Near Delhi, India
Date: 1974
Time: 2300
Pranav Piyush was alone in his farm with he saw two triangle-shaped
objects in the sky. They appeared to land beyond view of the witness
and soon two tall human-like figures approached him. They conversed
with the witness (in his native language?) and explained to him that
the earth had been struck 65 million years ago by a comet and the
survivors had managed to fly to Jupiter where they developed a new
civilization. They then warned Piyush that another comet was going
to strike the earth. Terrified the witness fell faint and saw the
two figures walked back towards the direction where the triangles
had vanished. As they moved away they appeared to change into
inhuman figures.

HC addendum
Source: Astronaut forum section, posted 12-14-98
Type: C