The main way to tell animals from clathrates, is that the clathrates will leave a vapor trail that persists for a few seconds. Animals never leave one. Sometimes you will see a short smearing trail due to video movement rendering problems. Animals that can swim will often swim against the flow. Plankton will follow the flow. Clathrates mostly follow the current unless they are larger then a golf ball. Then they do what they want, but can be steered. Animals also sometimes have color pigments. Have seen reds and purples.
This Oil Drum thread did mention clathrates once, but in general it seems to be ignored. Someone pointed out that the white ice that appeared above the 3 ram stack leak, might have been clathrates. Funny thing was that BP blew those formations off today with a pressure hose. Note the white ice-like possible clathrate formation in the image.
Wednesday morning 7/21/2010 (Oly1 4:50 AM PST) - (1 Week from Shut In) Long funnel plume found. Rising from sea floor and bending in water current. Possible source was 4 white smokers coming from floor.
Wednesday evening 7/21/2010 (Boa DeepC2 3:45 PM PST)(Oly2 3:47 PM PST) - Starting to notice up and down current movement. Has not been seen much prior to this. Kinda rare at this depth. Possible gray smokers seen. Difficult to notice due to very turbid water.
Wednesday evening 7/21/2010 (Oly1 4:00 PM PST) - Seeing more smokers, but not rising as much as first smokers. Acting as if heavier sediments are pluming upward and staying close to floor.
Wednesday evening 7/21/2010 (Oly2 11:30 PM PST) - See a small plume with a back top cap. Appears to be sediments and oil pluming up. Sediments fall and oil rises. Basically a sediment and oil physical separation process.
Thursday morning 7/22/2010 (Oly1 12:20 AM PST) - Observe two holes with heavy plumes or smoke rolling below them apparently toward the downward slope.
Thursday morning 7/22/2010 (Oly2 3:15 AM PST) - See what appear to be Dirty Methane Hydrate Ice Balls lifting from the sediments and traveling upward in distinct common vectors. They leave what appears to be a vapor trail and that gives them a rocket-like appearance . These are believed to be medium sized.
Thursday morning 7/22/2010 (Oly2 5:45 AM PST) - Begin to realize that smaller Methane Hydrate Ice Balls could be traveling more horizontal and following the water current. These also leave trails and can just disintegrate or dissolve.
Thursday afternoon 7/22/2010 (Oly2 3:30 PM PST) - Saw a small black smoker. There were also methane hydrate ice balls being ejected up and over the smoker. First time we saw them traveling up, laterally away and then back down to the sea bed.
Thursday evening 7/22/2010 (Skandi 1 6:10 PM PST) - Start to see some Methane Hydrate (Clathrate) chunks traveling around the BOP. Appear as shooting stars.
Friday afternoon 7/23/2010 (Skandi 1 3:55 PM PST) - Getting very difficult to see the BOP and Upper Stack from a distance. Even with multiple lights illuminating the area.
Friday evening 7/23/2010 (Oly2) - Finally a video posted to www.theoildrum.com documenting Clathrate ejections and smokers/plumers.Clathrate Ejections and Smokers
Saturday morning 7/24/2010 (Oly2 5:05 AM PST) - BOP almost impossible to see from a distance. Numerous Clathrate chunks look like shooting stars. Vertical currents are increasing. Very fast vertical water column movements around BOP. Saw white flashes in ground near BOP (clathrate ejection).
Sunday morning 7/25/2010 (Boa Deep C2 4:30 AM PST) - Small Clathrate ejections. These seem to be traveling primarily in the right to left current. For the first time notice skipping ston clathrates. They skip along the sea floor for a distance. Primary ejection source off to right. Made video. ROV moved away at 5:00 AM PST. Shows more at 5:20 AM PST.
Skipping Stone Small Clathrates
Vertical Small Clathrates from Silt
Sunday evening 7/25/2010 (Hos1 6:25 PM PST) - More small Skipping Stone Clathrates. Traveling through silt seafloor. Video from above.
Skipping Stone Clathrates Through Silt Seafloor.
Sunday evening 7/25/2010 (Skandi 2 9:07 PM PST)(Skandi 2 9:13 PM PST)(Skandi 2 9:44 PM PST) - Visibility getting bad. Lighted work area near BOP base. The actual BOP Base appears slightly buried with sediments and turbidity fallout. Also caught a sediment storm at BOP base.
Poor visibility at Work Area near BOP Base.
BOP Base Slightly Buried.
BOP Base Sediment storm.
Monday morning 7/26/2010 (Hos2 4:05 AM PST) - ROC tool crib got buried. Must have been due to sediment storm. Need solid walled cribs with a closed top that lifts in future. Storms getting worse.
ROV Tool Crib Buried
Monday morning 7/26/2010 (Boa Deep C2 04:25 AM PST) - Tiny Clathrate storm engulfed BOP and new panel assembly for 20 to 30 minutes. Size was smaller then golf ball. Lots of acceleration due to propulsion from methane hydrate diffusion and dissolution.
Tiny Clathrate Storm at BOP
Tiny Clathrate Storm at BOP Fast Acceleration
Tiny Clathrate Storm at BOP Vertical Flows
Note - It is entirely possible that some of these observations are normal natural processes that occur in the area, but quite a few appear to be obvious anomalies. To verify this we need to be able to have access to the high res video archives. Then we could compare the sea floor activity prior to Shut In and after Shut In.