Methane Extinctions - Could this Explain the Carolina Bays?

Evolutionary Leaps ^ | June 2010 | Robert Felix & video by Dr. Gregory Ryskin, Professor

[Errant]

Link to 5:56-minute video explaining Dr, Ryskin's theories

[JRios1968]

The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, the largest extinction in history, could have been caused by huge, worldwide methane explosions...

Otherwise known as "Taco Tuesdays"

[equalitybeforethelaw]

So the dinosaurs became extinct because they lit their farts? Who knew.

[thackney]

CO2 is twice as heavy as air

But methane is not. It is lighter than air and an accumulation of it in a cloud would be far above the surface.

[KoRn]

/mark

[sodpoodle]

*ping*

[Redleg Duke]

Bush’s Fault!

[Thunder90]

GW PING

[IamConservative]

Interesting to consider. Seems like lightening would occur somewhere before there was enough built up to cause the kind of event described.

I don’t know if Methane cause the Carolina Bays, but I have seen a causal relationship between methane and skid marks.

[Pontiac]

(You can make methane from CO2.)

It is however much easier to make CO2 from methane (CH4)

An exothermic reaction which cooks a great deal of food in this country every day.

CH4 + 2(O2) = CO2 + 2(H2O)

Making Methane from CO2 would be an endothermic reaction and therefore unlikely in nature.

[meadsjn]

Besides, methane explosions wouldn't explain why all of the bays are elliptical.

Couldn't possibly have been caused by huge rocks hitting the surface from an angled flight path???

[blam]

Carolina Bays

[Fred Hayek]

Methane MW (molecular weight) 16
Air avg MW 29
Carbon Dioxide MW 44
Under standard conditions (1 atm, ~20 Celsius), ideal gas rules are good approximation so 1 mole volume (22.3 liters) weighs the molecular weight in grams.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

What probably gave him the idea is that there are enormous methane ice fields under some of the northern latitude sea beds, that are believed to erupt under some circumstances, blowing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

However, as enormous as these can be, they don’t seem to have the same character as the Carolina bays.

http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=301

[Born to Conserve]

Do people get paid to be so dumb?

Those formations are the result of prevailing winds and freeze thaw cycles in permafrost lowlands.

Just check out the northern coast of Alaska.

The above theory courtesy Google maps, and FIVE MINUTES OF REFLECTION.

[Born to Conserve]

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=69.935955,-130.297852&spn=0.456067,2.447205&t=h&z=9

[Snickering Hound]

Xenu's fault.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Couldn't possibly have been caused by huge rocks hitting the surface from an angled flight path???

Actually, no. Meteorites striking a surface make round holes except at the most extreme angles and then they make streaks or skip (making a line of round holes). That's why you don't see a lot of oval craters on the moon, most of which were made by angled impacts.

[mountainlion]

Looks like a fishing expedition for stimulus money to me.

[Cyber Ninja]

If that theory had drawn a bigger grant, that would be the story.