Posted on 06/21/2013 12:10:40 PM PDT by neverdem
On the seafloor just off of the U.S. East Coast lies a barely known world, explorations of which bring continual surprises. As recently as the mid-2000s, practically zero methane seeps — spots on the seafloor where gas leaks from the Earth's crust — were thought to exist off the East Coast; while one had been reported more than a decade ago, it was thought to be one of a kind.
But in the past two years, additional studies have revealed a host of new areas of seafloor rich in seeps, said Laura Brothers, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. And surrounding these seafloor vents, scientists have found a variety of unique life forms, like mussels and crabs, that survive via symbiotic relationships with methane-eating bacteria, Brothers told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet. New technologies have allowed scientists to keep locating new seeps, including one that may be the largest in the world. The findings have changed geologists' understanding of the processes taking place beneath the seafloor.
"These newly discovered [seafloor] communities show that there is much more seafloor methane venting then we previously thought, and suggests that there are many more seeps out there that we don't know about," Brothers said. A study co-authored by Brothers, published online last month in the journal Geology, found several large communities of mussels and other animals at two spots off of the Carolinas where methane is seeping from the seafloor, Brothers said. Although one of these spots had already been discovered, the amount of life the researchers found covered an area about six times larger than previously thought, Brothers said. And the mussels cover a total area equivalent to about 40 football fields.[Photos: Unique Life Found at East Coast Gas Seep]
"We found these in an area we thought we knew well," she...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Must be a lot of cows farting in Atlantis . . .
Any attempt to drill for natural gas will brings cries of “Oh, we must not disturb the ecology of the methane-eaters!”
The EPA does not permit seeps so the East coast states will have to take some sort of remedial action soon. But the critters around the seeps mustn’t be disturbed so an Interstate Bicycle Path System may need to be built so restore something or other.
Ooops.
Now all the global carbon emissions and greenhouse gas models have to “re-calibrated” to account for this unknown variable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41mQr2IJ_Y
As a youngster in the late ‘50’s to early ‘60’s my friends and I had great fun in the Western PA bogs and woodlands lighting the seeps on fire.
You had to be careful though. Find a puddle with small bubbles. If they were big and frequent sometimes it would flare up into a fairly steady flame.
The local fire department was NOT amused, LOL!
Don’t worry, Obama will stop it by Executive Order.
“FAR! FAR! Fire will be coming out of the water faucets!
Ain't nobody got time for that!”
Oh no oh no!
Join my group “SDCN” Shut Down Civilization Now!”
We can't have any machinery, technology, jobs, electricity. They are all evil and against the darter snail and the Doh Doh bird!
Please, won't you send your trillion dollars coins to:
GOVERNMENT SUPERMACISTS FOR THE AMERICAN WAY
666 Socialism Avenue
Man Bear Pig, TN 37201
Only $700 trillion dollars will virtually wipe humans from the Earth with our environmentally sound plans.
Do it for the children!
Bacteria living in methane seeps. Just goes to show that the “life as we know it” meme the scientists keep talking about is a lot more diverse than what we think of. Who is to say there isn’t life in the middle of the sun? Intelligent beings on a methane planet would be horrified to think there could be life on a planet of H20 and oxygen which can be highly reactive and corrosive to many other chemicals. They wouldn’t be able to believe ANYTHING could live where liquid H2O fell from the skies.
It happened during Obama’s reign so it is not surprising, it is “unexpected”. /s
Yeah but it’s still SUV’s! They are evil and giving the Planet a Fever etc etc etc
My solution “Drill Baby Drill!”
TT
I thought 0bama healed the sea’s????
It’s coming from Chris Christie’s mouth.
If a gas seeps release all sorts of noxious fumes it’s the most wonderful thing in nature to be found but if my cow belches the world will begin to melt.
So many nuts, so few strait jackets.
Dangerous dihydrogen monoxide is all around us!
http://dhmo.org/
We have to rid our planet of it in our lifetime.
Do it for the children.
Do it for the environazis.
The Art of Limited Government A pretty good summer read while Senate RINOs sell us out, IMHO.
1 in 12 on Bloomberg’s gun victims list are crime suspects
Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.
Methane is a strong greenhouse gas. Stronger than CO2.
That’ll make their heads explode.
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.