General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMethane Ignition, Alaska
Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic
This Month in Photo of the Day: National Geographic Magazine Features
Methane is bubbling from lakes all over the warming Arctic. Here ecologist Katey Walter Anthony (at right) ignites a large bubble that was trapped by the fall freezethen freed by an ice pick.
See more pictures from the December 2012 feature story "Good Gas, Bad Gas."
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/methane-alaska-thiessen/
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)It's just the rate, which has slightly increased in recent years.....that's all.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)CreekDog
(46,192 posts)man.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)(Had the same thought as you but saw part of the picture and thought we had another disaster. Though the clathrate releases are going to be a disaster in the future.)
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)I think we both deserve a much longer respite before any such undertaking, don't you?
But it's nice to bump into you again, Josh! My man!
krispos42
(49,445 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)mick063
(2,424 posts)lightning strikes 100 million tons of the stuff?
Some scientist type inform me please.
All I know is that hydrogen bombs can be the equivalent of 100 million tons of TNT.
I'll wager there is more methane than that trapped up there. Perhaps not a mushroom cloud, but one heck of a fireball. Think of how long and how much the buried fossil fuels have supplied us with energy. Imagine all of the gas tanks in our cars igniting at once.
Or perhaps this is all part of Exxon's plan. Intentionally melt the ice caps, bottle the methane, and use it to power our cities. If you can avoid sending money to the Middle East, I predict easily attained political support. I predict a boon for the "spark free" tool industry. Ravaging our planet could be even more profitable than it already is.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Or they could just nuke the methane fields to say one last "fuck you" to the rest of civilization and make some of the doomsday freaks' wet dreams come true.....and I'm only half-joking, by the way, some of the .1% really are that evil.....