Posted on 07/21/2006 7:32:14 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If the world continues to get warmer, vast amounts of methane gas trapped in ice under the sea could belch up and worsen climate change, according to a study.
"We may have less time than we think to do something (about the prospect of global warming)," Dr. Ira Leifer, a marine scientist at University of California Santa Barbara, said in an interview.
Leifer is the main author of a study that looks at how "peak blowouts" of melting undersea formations called methane hydrates could release the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The study was published on Thursday in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, a climate science publication.
The distribution of methane hydrates throughout the world is so vast that energy companies hope one day to tap the resource. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that such formations could harbor as much as 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Hydrate formations exist under hundreds of meters of water in places like the Gulf of Mexico and closer to the surface in permafrost areas of the Arctic.
Methane, the main component of the fossil fuel natural gas, has two faces. When burned it releases less carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that scientists believe are warming the earth, than any other fossil fuel.
But if it escapes to the atmosphere without being burned, it can trap heat rapidly because it is a greenhouse gas at least 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
The study measured the amount of methane that escaped to the atmosphere from a peak blowout from small volcanoes on the ocean floor off of California. It found that virtually all of the methane escaping from the deep water reached the atmosphere, countering some theories that methane seeps out in tiny bubbles that harmlessly dissolve in the ocean.
Leifer said rising temperatures could warm the oceans, creating a feedback loop in which warm temperatures make global warming even worse.
Most scientists believe emissions of heat-trapping gases from cars, industrial sources and the burning of forests are warming the earth. NASA has said that 2005 was the warmest year at the earth's surface since records began in the 1860s.
While deep ocean temperatures have been more stable, currents of gradually rising sea-surface temperatures could eventually warm the ocean's depths and release gas, said Leifer. "If you expose a hydrate to water that's warmer than normal it starts destabilizing," he said.
"I have no doubt that if we warm the atmosphere too much the oceans will follow and will cause the problem to become severe at some point."
Gas escaping from ocean floor may drive global warming ^
Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism ^ 07/20/2006 4:08:30 AM PDT · 64 replies · 1,190+ views
UC Santa Barbara via Eureka Alert ^ | 7-19-06 | Ira Leifer and Gail Gallessich (Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes
Wouln't the wetsuit keep it in?
Thats impossible...everyone knows that Global Warming is mankinds fault.
Standby for fart jokes...
not so long ago.. plants were tabbed as 'culprits' too
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1556201/posts
New source of global warming gas found: plants ^
Posted by lunarbicep
On News/Activism ^ 01/11/2006 11:57:30 AM PST · 54 replies · 840+ views
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1557524/posts
New source of global warming gas found: plants ^
Posted by Abathar
On News/Activism ^ 01/13/2006 9:26:17 AM PST · 26 replies · 583+ views
And, of course, we'd be removing a dangerous chemical from the environment, converting it into carbon dioxode which, while evil, is not as evil as methane.
We must take care of global warming now because by the time we see the effects it will be too late.
But Iran's nuclear program can wait - that's years away.
Holy fishfarts, Batman! If we only did more ocean gas extraction, the environment would be safer.
This article tries to take FACTS that show something else is causing global warming, and then use it to PROVE that it's our fault and we have to stop driving cars in order to save the planet. What a bunch of BS spin!
Whale farts also a contributing factor. Greenpeace reportedly conflicted...
Post 2 was way ahead of you.......
I thought I smelled something....
Somebody better cork Michael Moore. If he let's rip, the planet is doomed.
He who smelt it, dealt it.
It's you smug types who are always busting me out.
Sounds somewhat like Dr. Thomas Gold's theory.
Iran No Imminent Danger
Gosh, and here all along, I thought it was the Austrailian sheep herds and all the cattle herds causing the methane net that created global warming. To find out it is the fault of the angel fish and manatees is revolting! (sarcasm tag is off!)
No, duh!
It's the methane-hydrate cycle that drives global warming. (Which is why CO_2 is a *trailing indicator of temperature increase*).
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