Aside from the oil, very little commentary on the METHANE. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. It's a rather minor problem, relatively.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. methane is a powerful green house gas

that is much worse than CO2.It is capable of trapping 20% more heat than co2 . 40% of the stuff escaping fron the hole BP punched in the Gulf is methane

[dipsydoodle]

3. Twenty times as much

.

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. whopps, I added to my post before I read yours

K&R

[dipsydoodle]

5. I knew the figure from ages ago.

Methane, which is what 87% of natural gas is by volume , is lighter than air so any that reaches the surface simply goes skywards - it don't stick around. The Gulf field is 25,000 sq miles overall composed of 90% gas and 10% oil so there's a lot of gas trying to get out. BP have just got a small section of that.

You a dancer ? I'm off here in two weeks time : http://www.hepcatsholiday.com/ UK's answer to Dean Collins/Hollywood Style. :)

[FBI_Un_Sub]

6. But - it is a much more effective fuel

A pound of methane produces much less CO2 then a pound of octane. Do the arithmetic CH4 versus C8H18.

[Johonny]

8. but it gets oxidized into CO2

The lifetime of methane is only 10-20 years. So for long term global climate change methane is treated as another source of CO2. Now people have modeled really catastrophic methane releases and the rather short term global warming they could cause, but that's beyond what we are seeing here. At least for now :)

[BeFree]

7. What about all the other gasses?

Benzene, etc. Y'know, the fumes.

Remember that one ton tarball? That must have lost ten tons of fumes.

[Lorien]

9. You mean the methane bubble that could kill millions?

(including yours truly) :http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

(snip)


The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.

While the entire Gulf coastline is vulnerable, the state most exposed to the fury of a supersonic wave towering 100 feet or more is Florida. The Sunshine State only averages about 6 inches above sea level. A supersonic tsunami would literally sweep away everything from Miami to the panhandle in a matter of minutes. Loss of human life would be virtually instantaneous and measured in the millions. Of course the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia—a state with no Gulf coastline—would also experience tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of casualties.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. LOL

I like the bit about the supersonic tsunami traveling at 400 mph.

[chill_wind]

11. "This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,"

(John Kessler, Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.)

Oil spill full of methane, adding new concerns
Scientists say gas could suffocate marine life, create 'dead zones'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37778190/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/


Steven DiMarco, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University who has studied a long-known "dead zone" in the Gulf, said one example of marine life that could be affected by low oxygen levels in deeper waters would be giant squid — the food of choice for the endangered sperm whale population. Squid live primarily in deep water, and would be disrupted by lower oxygen levels, DiMarco said.