this is really scary stuff-methane bubble

[poopfuel]

http://www.energybulletin.net/3647.html

[phantom power]

1. They really ought to call it a fart. But that's a potty word.

[Champion Jack]

2. Too bad there isn't a way to capture it

That's a hell of a lot of gas

[phantom power]

4. There are people studying the possibility.

It's not in a very convenient location, and it's not especially stable when handled. If we try to harvest it, we may end up releasing as much as we capture. Or more. Some people propose the possibility of cascade effects. Methane-releasing avalanches.

A climate time-bomb, and one that can't be defused.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. Burning it might not be such a good idea, either

It's a greenhouse gas that releases greenhouse gas when it's burned.

As a short-term expedient, it's probably best left alone. We're going to need some kind of low-carbon-load energy, whether it's nuclear or solar/wind/tidal, or all of them.

In the short-term, we have no good solutions, and even the "winners" are going to have to accept some bad compromises. But over a period of 50-100 years, we might actually have a chance ... if we don't die off first.

--p!

[hatrack]

3. And after 100 years or so, all that methane turns into CO2

" . . . So tonight we're gonna party like it's K-T Extinction Time!"

[Canuckistanian]

5. Well it's the methane itself that will do the damage

From the article:
Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.


It would actually be good for the methane to be broken down into CO2, if that's possible.

[Nihil]

8. So who's going to sit out there with a match?

:-)

[htuttle]

10. We could start dropping tons of methane-eating bacteria on the deposits

http://www.tigr.org/news/pr_09_20f_04.shtml

I think there are already a number of species that metabolize and fix methane (such as Methylococcus capsulatus, according to the link above), but I'm not sure if they could utilize frozen methane (probably not?).

Maybe we could design one that could eat frozen methane?
(yikes...that could lead to a worse nightmare in too many ways...major desperation play).

I can't think of much else to do, unless there are some chemical reactants that could fix methane into something solid (very quickly).

Either technique could probably be used to get a start on cleaning the methane back out of the atmosphere once the deposit do melt. Not that it's would do our own civilization any good, but might reduce the amount of time that methane poisons the atmosphere. The next dominant species on the planet would thank us for cleaning up after ourselves...

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Those deposits are pretty cold

Generally just above the freezing point of water. Is M. capsulatus adaptable to icy water?

And those deposits are in the form of mixed methane clathrates. Can these organisms consume clathrates?

The article mentions that symbionts are required as hosts for the bacilli, too. That could both pose problems and provide solutions. But it's still the cold that concerns me about the feasibility of the project.

--p!

[OneBlueSky]

6. there's a certain amount of cosmic justice in this . . .

humans mistreating the Earth to such an extent that she simply farts us out of existence . . . along with most other life forms . . .

[phantom power]

7. I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal...

food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Go and boil your bottoms!

[phantom power]

9. Assume it's released, and then it slowly oxidizes...

how much heat energy is released from "burning" it (if oxidation over 100 years can be called "burning")? I wonder if that might be significant too. It's quite a lot of methane.

[phantom power]

13. I'm reminded of earthquake prevention schemes.

Some people have proposed the plan of triggering regular small earthquakes on purpose, with the intention of releasing strain-energy slowly, instead of one catastrophic burst.

I wonder if these enormous methane hydrate deposits might be treated the same way. Release them over time in small amounts, in an attempt to avert a catastrophic release.