The Truth about Atmospheric Methane and it's Role in Global Warming

This is chapters 5 and 6 of my book, Fever Rising. Chapter 5: Methane's Role in Global Warming and Chapter 6: The Truth about Atmospheric Methane. I'm publishing the entire book for the ATS community because it was on these pages that the research and content of the book was born in late 2012 through early 2014. The book was published on August 27, 2014. Here are the first four chapters spread out over three threads.

The Mystery of the Clintonville Booms
The Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis
The Rise of Deadly Methane Gas

Chapter 5: Methane's Role in Global Warming

A dangerous trend is that our ocean waters are warming creating ph levels to drop, causing these dead zones to initiate methane release. The methane hydrates under the ocean are nothing more than crystallized gas but as the waters warm, the crystals will melt and the methane will release. The more this happens, the more the chain reaction continues to warm.

Two biologists, Cathy Pfister and her husband Tim Wooten, have been studying the ocean from a small island off the coast of Washington for the past 20 years. In 2008, they noticed something alarming, the decline of ph in the waters was dropping ten times faster than anything predicted. This was reported in an article at sciencelife.uchospitals.edu by Matt Wood, Feb. 6, 2013. The ocean waters were becoming more acidic and ph levels were dropping and they hypothesized the cause that the fossil fuels we humans were burning was rising in the atmosphere as carbons, in which the ocean absorbs a third of that carbon, which raises acidic levels while dropping ph levels. Notice how they found these alarming changes in 2008, just one year after the MIT study noted the world wide rise in atmospheric methane.

In the Methane Outbreak Alert story in April of 2013, the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG) claimed that the process of the methane release in the Arctic Ocean began 20 to 30 years ago when the ocean currents from the Atlantic and Pacific started moving waters that were warmed by greenhouse gases north, into the Arctic. This extra heat traveled into shallow waters along the continental shelf, and the deep sea bed, which then destabilized the methane hydrates and free gas that was trapped there for millions of years in the permafrost cap. The result, methane hydrates began releasing into the atmosphere at dangerous levels. AMEG stated in the alert that the quantities of methane in the continental shelf are so huge and overwhelming that only 1% or 2% of the methane released could lead to an unstoppable chain reaction of runaway overheating of the planet.

Dissident Voice.org, April 27, 2013
Methane Outbreak Alert
By Robert Hunziker
According to David Wasdell, International Coordinator, Meridian Programme: “A runaway climate change is now clear and beginning to be quantified for the first time… the greatest threat we face as a planet… The rate of change we’re generating in the current situation is between 200-300 times faster than that experience of any extinction event apart from the asteroidal impact. If you look at the general background change, for instance, it takes about 10,000 years to change the concentration of carbon dioxide by 100 ppm — we’re doing it in 30 years at this year’s rate… so, the rate of change in the climate is phenomenal compared to previous extinction events.”

Wasdell continues, “We’re already in a mass extinction event. We’re losing species and losing populations, partly by climate change and partly by habitat change, partly by overexploitation of habitat like fisheries… We’ve lost about 40% of the phytoplankton in the oceans which is the basis of the food chain.”

Imagine 40% of land crops disappearing; the world would be in a state of chaos involving hordes of desperate people invading other countries for their food and water. In contrast, what can marine life do upon losing 40% of its primary food source as a result of human-induced climate change?

AMEG also points out another dangerous effect we face from melting sea ice in the Arctic. As the quickly declining sea ice, nearly 20% over each of the past three decades, exposes more ocean water, it will cause the albedo effect to collapse. What is the albedo effect? Albedo is the reflection of the Sun’s radiation off the white ice and white snow surfaces, while on the other hand, the Sun’s radiation is absorbed by the dark sea and land masses.

AMEG stated in the Methane Outbreak Alert article that a collapsing albedo effect is ominously apocalyptic for the Arctic, and for the world. They said that this will lead to more methane emissions and a vicious cycle of feedbacks leading to an extinction level event, probably unstoppable. With nearly 17% sea ice decline over each of the past three decades, the albedo effect is already collapsing.

Dissident Voice.org, April 27, 2013
Methane Outbreak Alert
By Robert Hunziker
According to physicist Paul Beckwith, University of Ottawa, since 2007, there has been a sharp increase in methane release, and he says methane is the key now to a ‘tipping point’ in the climate. He believes it is entirely possible that before 2020 the Arctic will be clear of sea ice with open waters three months of the year, as a minimum, and without sea ice, and with the loss of the reflective albedo, all the feedbacks will kick into gear. This will, in turn, trigger runaway warming of the planet and fractured weather patterns like extra-prolonged droughts or sudden, torrential rains as the entire world begins to sizzle!

There is a great article written by Peter Ward featured in a 2006 edition of Scientific American called “Impact from the Deep.” This article highlights the role of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases in global warming, called the Killer Greenhouse Effect. Here is a website link to the PDF copy of the article; www.chicagocleanpower.org... Here is a short excerpt from the article that explains the Killer Greenhouse Effect.

Scientific American
Impact from the Deep
By Peter Ward
A new model for mass extinctions at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago and the end Triassic 50 million years later explains how intense global warming could trigger deaths in the sea and on land. Trouble begins with widespread volcanic activity that releases enormous volumes of carbon dioxide and methane (1). The gases cause rapid global warming (2). A warmer ocean absorbs less oxygen from the atmosphere (3). Low oxygen (anoxia) destabilizes the chemocline, where oxygenated water meets water permeated with hydrogen sulfide (H2S) generated by bottom-dwelling anaerobic bacteria (4). As H2S concentrations build and oxygen falls, the chemocline rises abruptly to the ocean surface (5). Green and purple photosynthesizing sulfur bacteria, which consume H2S and normally live at chemocline depth, now inhabit the H2S-rich surface waters while oxygen-breathing ocean life suffocates (6). H2S also diffuses into the air, killing animals and plants on land (7) and rising to the troposphere to attack the planet’s ozone layer (8). Without the ozone shield, the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation kills remaining life (9).

Continued...

Granted, this article defines the process as something occurring over many years, thousands, but I believe that something has radically sped up this process as witnessed with the escalating frequency and intensity of weather events in the past few years. There have also been an alarming increase in many other phenomenon that I mentioned in the second chapter, such as fires, explosions, fireballs, sonic booms, earthquakes, sinkholes, disease outbreaks and mass animal die-offs, to name a few.

The author of the Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis rests much of his theories on the Killer Greenhouse Effect. He wrote his hypothesis in February of 2012 and believes that we are on course for an extinction level event (ELE) and that we’ll see increasing unexplained fires and explosions, animal and human die-offs with no apparent reason. His hypothesis has proved correct in that we have observed these events on a daily basis. I’ll show these statistics in a later chapter.

The Killer Greenhouse Effect declares that large volumes of volcanic activity will be the trigger, but there are also man made sources of methane emissions which include enteric fermentation, which is mostly made up of livestock flatulence. 29% of man made methane comes from livestock, with an additional 4% from manure. A 2006 pie chart shows the percentage of man made sources contributing to methane release and attributes 16% to natural gas, but this number may be much higher. I for one don’t believe in its accuracy as of 2014. Since 2006, there is more evidence that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a major cause of man made methane emissions, especially from the lost gas that escapes into the atmosphere from each drilling operation. The pie chart shows natural gas as a source of 16%, but this number may be much higher. I will get more into this in the methane and fracking chapter, but basically, these wells are losing up to 9% of the gas to the atmosphere rather than being captured. The coal industry only loses 3%, and when fracking got its start, it was said that they would have to stay under this 3% mark for fracking to be a safer and cleaner source of energy than coal. Well, it turns out its failing at that goal.

Other sources in the pie chart include solid waste (16%), rice (12%), wastewater (11%), coal (8%), biofuel combustion (4%) and fuel (1%).

I’m not downplaying the role of volcanic activity in relation to methane emissions, especially with the current rate of volcanoes erupting globally. We will discuss volcanoes in much more detail later as well, examining the fact that 2013 was a record year for eruptions and what this all means to the current rate of global warming.

As I mentioned earlier, after a decade of leveling off, in 2007 atmospheric methane levels began surging again and now scientists are wondering what to do about it. Despite their concern, we don’t hear much about it. One reason for this is that most climate change activists don’t want to divert attention away from the carbon dioxide issue. Although CO2 levels are important, they pale in comparison to the role that methane plays in global warming. Since the Industrial Age began, methane has risen 150% in the atmosphere while CO2 has only risen 30%. We’re talking about how much faster unchecked methane levels can increase the warming of our planet as methane traps in more heat, but on top of that, there is the uncertain possibility of a “time bomb” going off with a sudden catastrophic release of methane from the frozen hydrates.
It’s believed that past mass extinctions may have been caused by a sudden release of methane and if you’re paying attention to the behavior of our current oceans, you’ll see that they are dying…fish and sea life are suffering mass die-off events every passing day. Dead zones are growing in size and the water temperatures of the deep are rising. This spells one thing, the climate is changing and runaway global warming is for real. Just how far we allow it to snowball, possibly to a catastrophic release of methane, is yet to be known, but, methane’s role in this dangerous game we are playing is very significant.

I know I may sound a bit dramatic with the point that I am trying to drive home, but it’s necessary. The masses need to hear about this and open their eyes to what’s happening. I know it’s almost too frightening to contemplate, but, if there is still any chance of our survival, then we need to stop hiding from what’s plain to see and start facing it head on and seek out the answers and solutions.

Here is what Harold Hansel of the Arctic Methane Emergency Group had to say about the high level readings.

From AMEG, Harold Hansel
“This is epic! Keep watching the Laptev and East Siberian Sea. This is a very dangerous place for methane to come up. Huge amounts of methane hydrates are stored below. They have been frozen there safely for over 10,000 years. We are witnessing the thawing and large release of methane from this area for the first time in over 10,000 years. The fear is that at a critical point there may be a catastrophic sudden burst of methane from this area. This would more than likely trigger runaway global warming. We could be watching the beginnings of this. If the red on the 1750 ppb and the yellow on the 1950 ppb setting on the methanetracker.org keep spreading and intensify, we are watching it happen. I hope this is an anomaly and these areas return to little or no activity."

So, to summarize what we’ve discussed so far, we have not only methane, but deadly hydrogen sulfide gas pluming into the atmosphere trapping the Sun’s heat. This is a global event where anoxic waters around the planet are causing deadly gas plumes. The ozone layer is being reacted away from these plumes, which is causing a severe rise in UV radiation on the planet which is causing mutations and cancers. Trapped methane is causing temperatures to rise, which in turn, causes weather anomalies, animal die-offs, explosions and more.

Here is a brief explanation of how it works. Oxygen is being depleted at deeper levels of the oceans and this is caused by several factors such as stagnation, density stratification, inputs of organic material and strong thermoclines. This is a process that’s happened throughout history, but at present, there has been an acceleration, which basically means that the already anoxic waters have become even more anoxic, especially in the Gulf where the waters are heated up and that heated water traveled around Florida and up to the East Coast. The release of these gases – hydrogen sulfide (heavier-than-air gas) and methane (lighter-than-air) are causing the heating up of the atmosphere and in turn, heats up the world’s waters. The hydrogen sulfide plumes rise in the atmosphere and carry to distances over land and then, because it is heavier than air, settles back to the surface and settles in low-lying areas. Methane is lighter and settles high in the atmosphere.

This cycle is dangerously growing and repeating because the hydrogen sulfide is eating away the hydroxyl radicals and ozone. The hydroxyl radicals are what normally keeps the methane levels at bay in the atmosphere, and now the resulting methane plumes will last longer, enhancing the oceanic heating and in turn, causing more hydrogen sulfide plumes, making methane last longer, and the cycle keeps going and increasing rapidly.

Continued...

a reply to: Rezlooper

See, I told you guys that methane was a much better tool for instituting a world government.

But you went for the carbon dioxide because it seemed like a shoe-in.

Now, people will be very wary of falling-skyism as they should be.

Hydrogen sulfide and methane are highly flammable and interacting in a deadly way with us in our cars, boats, planes, homes, chemical plants, motorcycles, jet skis, businesses and ammo plants causing an increase in fires and explosions all over the planet.

Chapter 6: The Truth about Atmospheric Methane

Methane continues discharging into the atmosphere. The levels have been measured and statistics show they were at 1800 ppb in 2012. For thousands of years, methane levels have hovered around 300 to 400 ppb. That is a sharp increase and the numbers have been slowly rising since the 1700’s when the industrial age began, but, in 1997 it leveled off for 10 years only to start rising again in 2007. NASA modeling showed a wide equatorial band of stratospheric methane reaching 1800 ppb, a much higher number than appears in the lower troposphere. What does this mean? The methane continues to climb high into the upper layers of our stratosphere where it accumulates, acting like a blanket, covering the planet and causing extreme heating of the surface by trapping the heat of the sun.

I believe that methane is also making its way up to the mesosphere. The stratosphere is the layer between 10 miles and 30 miles while the mesosphere is from 30 miles to 60 miles above us. We don’t even know for certain how much methane is in the mesosphere because the layer is too high for weather balloons and our jets, and too low for satellites and our former space shuttles. We haven’t been able to accurately measure methane levels in this layer of the atmosphere. Besides that, most of the levels are not measured in the stratosphere either and are not recorded when average atmospheric compositions are determined at Mauna Loa and other locations. In 2014, a methane-detecting satellite is set to be launched by the Germans and French and once that is done, we should have a better idea of just how much methane is in the atmosphere up to 50 km. This will still leave the higher mesosphere undetectable.



What is happening to cause a rapid increase in global warming from the methane rising into these layers of the atmosphere? The methane reservoir is increasing in density, thickness and extent which is trapping the sun’s heat. This happens via infrared radiation. The heat from the sun passes through the atmosphere as long-wave infrared and heats up the surface and all the objects. The surface and the objects emit short-wave infrared that normally bounces safely back out to space, but instead is being blocked from leaving by this blanket of methane and other greenhouse gases. Usually about a third of the sun’s energy would bounce back to space. Much of that heat is being absorbed and re-radiated back to the earth’s surface. With this build up of methane gases, which absorb 25 times that of carbon dioxide, a lot of extra heat is being prevented from safely leaving the atmosphere.
What exactly is infrared radiation? Here is a definition from Wikipedia.

Wikipedia.com
In general, it is a measure of thermal energy—in other words, temperature. Any object that has a temperature above absolute zero (-459.67°F or -273.15°C, the point where atoms and molecules cease to move) radiates in the infrared. Even objects which we think of as being very cold, such as an ice cube, emit radiation in the infrared. When an object is not quite hot enough to radiate visible light, it will emit most of its energy in the infrared. For example, a hot kettle on a stove may not give off light but it does emit infrared radiation, which we feel as heat. The warmer the object, the more infrared radiation it emits. Humans, at normal body temperature, radiate most strongly in the infrared at a wavelength of about 10 microns.

Methane, once released, lives for approximately nine years in the atmosphere. In equal parts to carbon dioxide, methane has 60% more effect on global warming than carbon dioxide. Methane in the atmosphere also creates ozone, another greenhouse gas at the lower levels despite absorbing ultra-violet radiation at the higher altitudes. It is believed that when ozone depletes in the lower atmosphere it may cause global cooling but is the exact opposite when it depletes in the upper levels, where it causes warming instead. Methane creates ozone at the lower levels where one ozone molecule in the upper troposphere (around five to ten miles up) produces much more surface warming than does any molecules at the surface or in the mid or upper stratosphere.



In the chart above, the chart of the decade, you can see the rapid rising of methane in the atmosphere. Over the course of 400,000 years methane levels were never as high as they are now. In just the last four years methane has risen more than in the last 20 years. As we’ve already discussed, methane is very potent as a greenhouse gas and once it does live out its life in the atmosphere, it doesn’t go away. It then oxidizes into carbon dioxide.

Mankind faces a major problem. These numbers should alarm all the skeptics but it’s still basically ignored despite plenty of science to back it up. Their argument is to pretend that man couldn’t possibly be responsible for global warming and that we give ourselves too much credit because mother earth has been here for billions of years. Well, in the last 400,000 years, we’ve never seen the numbers like they are now and all this only a mere 250 years after humans began the industrial age.

In a report from the New Scientist in August of 2011, a research team sailed into the west of the Svalbard archipelago just north of Norway where they found CH4 plumes being released by the heat of the West Spitsbergen current. Scientists claim that the current there has warmed one degree over the past 30 years. Such a slight warming of the waters and it has a remarkably noticeable effect. Methane released from the frozen hydrates in a 600km area they studied is adding up to 27 kilotons per year. If the hydrates are releasing in the entire Svalbard area, it could be as much as 20 megatons of methane per year. If this were the case on a global level, this release extrapolating to all shallow, cold ocean waters could translate to around 10% of fossil fuel emissions.

I want to conclude this chapter with a piece from the Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis. This is entitled “Correcting Al Gore” by Jonny Mnemonic.

JumpingJackFlashHypothesis.blogspot.com
By Jonny Mnemonic
It appears Al Gore got things completely wrong. I mean totally wrong, 180 degrees wrong. Back-asswards, as they say.
I watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' a couple of times. One thing always bothered me and that was that in the historical record, the temperature peaks always came before the CO2 peaks. Yet if CO2 was the cause of the temperature rise, then the opposite should be expected: the temperature peaks should have occurred at or after the CO2 peaks. That was not the case. Why? That question was never answered.

Continued...

Now I have the answer. It wasn't CO2 that caused the temperature rises at all. The oceans heat up first, perhaps due to volcanic activity. That causes the 'dead zones' to grow and plume hydrogen sulfide, which strips away the ozone layer. The warming oceans then release the methane contained in the methane clathrates into the atmosphere. The temperature peaks occur when the methane peaks in the atmosphere; methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Over time the methane degrades into CO2, so the atmospheric composition changes from methane to CO2, a strong greenhouse gas to a weaker one. As that occurs the temperature begins to come down even as the CO2 levels continue to rise and eventually peak. Also, the hydrogen sulfide and methane cause much or all of the Earth's surface to burn, both being highly flammable gases, and that too adds to the atmospheric CO2.

Is CO2 a greenhouse gas? Yes, it is. But it has not been CO2 that has been the warming culprit in Earth's history; it has been methane and hydrogen sulfide, mostly methane insofar as the heating of the planet is concerned. The CO2 comes after the burning and the methane releases. Thus, CO2 is not so much the cause as it is the effect. This fits the data much
better than Al Gore's simplistic CO2-did-it-all theory, and this explanation answers that heretofore unanswered question: why did the temperatures peak before the CO2 levels peaked?

a reply to: Rezlooper

Sorry, I think I messed up your posts.

Can they be deleted to maintain your flow?

a reply to: greencmp

No, I don't think so, but that's all right. The message is there and they'll read on if they want to.

Absolutely love your writing style, very easy to follow and great subject matter!

S&F

originally posted by: Rezlooper
a reply to: greencmp

No, I don't think so, but that's all right. The message is there and they'll read on if they want to.

Cool, I am reading it now. Congratulations on the book btw!

a reply to: greencmp

Thank you, Greencmp.

originally posted by: flammadraco
Absolutely love your writing style, very easy to follow and great subject matter!

S&F

Thank you for the encouragement and positive thoughts. It's like fuel

Cute book idea, but can I make a suggestion? Would it be too much to ask to summarize these for those of us with limited time? Getting the gist for the time being and then coming back to read in depth is much better than losing people from your audience who can't sit & read the whole shebang & end up forgetting about your efforts.

a reply to: Rezlooper

From what I have read so far, your work is thorough and makes the actual point that I was alluding to. Namely that methane actually does have the capacity to cause atmospheric warming.

Additionally, you recognize that a primary source for its release is the frozen methane on the sea floor.

What I have been complaining to my green friends about is that no interventionist legislative maneuvers could ever provide relief. We must think about how to ameliorate its effects, not destroy our economies for no reason.

I have been asking for ages how so little CO2 (less than half of one percent) can heat so much, many thanks to the poster for the explanation of Methane's actions in the atmosphere.

originally posted by: Nyiah
Cute book idea, but can I make a suggestion? Would it be too much to ask to summarize these for those of us with limited time? Getting the gist for the time being and then coming back to read in depth is much better than losing people from your audience who can't sit & read the whole shebang & end up forgetting about your efforts.

I've thought about that but there's just too much information here and I didn't really want to summarize it down, leaving out important points and then have that be all someone reads thinking they have read enough when there is so much more that needs to be absorbed. To fully understand everything that I now understand, people need to see it all, without missing out on some important information. I apologize for the inconvenience, but hey, it's valuable information and it's worth the read.

originally posted by: greencmp
a reply to: Rezlooper

From what I have read so far, your work is thorough and makes the actual point that I was alluding to. Namely that methane actually does have the capacity to cause atmospheric warming.

Additionally, you recognize that a primary source for its release is the frozen methane on the sea floor.

What I have been complaining to my green friends about is that no interventionist legislative maneuvers could ever provide relief. We must think about how to ameliorate its effects, not destroy our economies for no reason.

That's how I feel about it as well. No amount of carbon taxes isn't going to solve this problem. Sure, reducing our carbon emissions is a good thing, but it's not what's going to stop this runaway train. Some very serious measures have to be taken now, on a global scale, and I just don't see how we're going to get governments of the world to act on it and quickly, because too much has been vested in the CO2 debate and to now admit that there is a more real threat...well, how would that go over?

originally posted by: pikestaff
I have been asking for ages how so little CO2 (less than half of one percent) can heat so much, many thanks to the poster for the explanation of Methane's actions in the atmosphere.

You bet Pikestaff. The last part of this OP sums things up pretty good in regards to what you've questioned. I'm going to repost it here again just in case someone missed it. This is what Jonny Mnemonic of the Jumping Jack Flash Hypothesis said about why CO2 levels lag behind past global warmings in the historical record.

It appears Al Gore got things completely wrong. I mean totally wrong, 180 degrees wrong. Back-asswards, as they say.
I watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' a couple of times. One thing always bothered me and that was that in the historical record, the temperature peaks always came before the CO2 peaks. Yet if CO2 was the cause of the temperature rise, then the opposite should be expected: the temperature peaks should have occurred at or after the CO2 peaks. That was not the case. Why? That question was never answered.

Now I have the answer. It wasn't CO2 that caused the temperature rises at all. The oceans heat up first, perhaps due to volcanic activity. That causes the 'dead zones' to grow and plume hydrogen sulfide, which strips away the ozone layer. The warming oceans then release the methane contained in the methane clathrates into the atmosphere. The temperature peaks occur when the methane peaks in the atmosphere; methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Over time the methane degrades into CO2, so the atmospheric composition changes from methane to CO2, a strong greenhouse gas to a weaker one. As that occurs the temperature begins to come down even as the CO2 levels continue to rise and eventually peak. Also, the hydrogen sulfide and methane cause much or all of the Earth's surface to burn, both being highly flammable gases, and that too adds to the atmospheric CO2.

Is CO2 a greenhouse gas? Yes, it is. But it has not been CO2 that has been the warming culprit in Earth's history; it has been methane and hydrogen sulfide, mostly methane insofar as the heating of the planet is concerned. The CO2 comes after the burning and the methane releases. Thus, CO2 is not so much the cause as it is the effect. This fits the data much
better than Al Gore's simplistic CO2-did-it-all theory, and this explanation answers that heretofore unanswered question: why did the temperatures peak before the CO2 levels peaked?

originally posted by: Rezlooper

originally posted by: greencmp
a reply to: Rezlooper

From what I have read so far, your work is thorough and makes the actual point that I was alluding to. Namely that methane actually does have the capacity to cause atmospheric warming.

Additionally, you recognize that a primary source for its release is the frozen methane on the sea floor.

What I have been complaining to my green friends about is that no interventionist legislative maneuvers could ever provide relief. We must think about how to ameliorate its effects, not destroy our economies for no reason.

That's how I feel about it as well. No amount of carbon taxes isn't going to solve this problem. Sure, reducing our carbon emissions is a good thing, but it's not what's going to stop this runaway train. Some very serious measures have to be taken now, on a global scale, and I just don't see how we're going to get governments of the world to act on it and quickly, because too much has been vested in the CO2 debate and to now admit that there is a more real threat...well, how would that go over?

I should clarify. I am glad that the governments of the world have embarrassed themselves, the solutions to problems have never come from government anyway.

If the primary source of methane is not under the control of humans, the solution must be conceived of outside of normal human activity (that is to say, capturing farts will do nothing to stop the methane from the ocean).

The sort of solutions which would be necessary would be at the geoengineering level and I rarely hear anyone discuss it.

The idea that keeps coming up when I think about it is to mine the frozen methane before it is dislodged (if potential releases could be anticipated). This has all sorts of risks not least of which being a major accidental release but, it is a possibility.

originally posted by: flammadraco
Absolutely love your writing style, very easy to follow and great subject matter!

S&F

Agreed and also a S&F

Regards, Iwinder

Could this trapped methane be captured and used as an alternative fuel source? It would be nice to be able to harness this vast reserve and turn it into a positive.