Gas Hydrate: What do you know about them?

It is apparently the singularly most abundant carbon fuel on Earth. It is, essentially, frozen methane gas. There is said to be enough of it to meet all of mankind's needs for 3,000 years.

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/what.html

The problem is, it ain't so environmentally friendly. Methane is a greenhouse gas.

http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html

Serious research has been successful in getting usable energy from gas hydrates in the Canadian Arctic. The Mallik drilling site, in the Northwest Territories, proved this.

http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/gashydrates/mallik2002/bulletin585_e.php
http://sst.rncan.gc.ca/2002_2006/hgca/index_e.php

US Research is, of course, also moving froward in :cough: :cough: Tejas.

http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/overview/hydrates.htm

............ aaaaaaaaaaaaanyway ........ what do you know about gas hydrates?

But there has been debate on what would happen if major sources were disturbed...

...we're pretty much done for. Though the permafrost will most likely go first.



(Hence the sig.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=143515&mesg_id=143515

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=127074&mesg_id=127074

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=127207&mesg_id=127207

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=153309&mesg_id=153309

and the really scary one ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=143720&mesg_id=143720



http://geology.usgs.gov/connections/mms/joint_projects/methane.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_hydrate

"Ryskin calculated that some 10,000 gigatons of dissolved methane could have accumulated in water near the ocean floor under high pressure. If released quickly, perhaps triggered by an earthquake, the resulting cloud of methane would have an explosive force about 10,000 times greater than the world's entire stockpile of nuclear weapons. The huge conflagrations plus flooding and overturned oceans would cause the extinctions. (Approximately 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were lost.)"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030828071722.htm

To put this in perspective, the largest land species to survive was the Lystrosaur, a pig-like mammal-like reptile that was barely 5 ft long and 100 lbs.

So, don't go fucking around with gas hydrates or they might fuck with you.

the oceans heat up

And they are hard as hell to harvest as well