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Methane and Martial Law in the Gulf of Mexico
The Auburn Journal ^ | June 24, 2010

Posted on 06/24/2010 10:00:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Earlier this week Reuters reported on a massive amount of methane discovered in the Gulf of Mexico. Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler said methane gas levels in some areas are “astonishingly high.” Kessler recently returned from a 10-day research expedition near the BP oil gusher. Kessler’s team measured both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP’s destroyed wellhead. “There is an incredible amount of methane in there,” Kessler told reporters. He said the level may be as much as one million times the normal level.

In late May BP said methane makes up about 40 percent of the leaking crude by mass. In addition to methane, large mounts of toxic hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride are leaking into the Gulf according to the EPA and others.

Lindsay Williams, a former Alaskan pipeline chaplain with high-level oil industry connections, told the Alex Jones Show on June 10 that deadly gases are indeed escaping from the breached wellhead.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madson, writing for Oil Price, states that his sources inside the federal government, FEMA, and the US Army Corps of Engineers are dealing with a prospective “dead zone” created by the escaping methane within a 200 mile radius from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In addition, Madsen reports, Corexit 9500, the oil dispersant used by BP, is viewed by FEMA sources as mixing with evaporated water from the Gulf. This deadly mixture is then absorbed by rain clouds and produces toxic precipitation that threatens to continue killing marine and land animals, plant life, and humans within a 200-mile radius of the Deepwater Horizon disaster site in the Gulf.

The “dead zone” created by a combination of methane gas and Corexit toxic rain, Madsen continues, will ultimately result in the evacuation and long-term abandonment of cities and towns within the 200-mile radius of the oil gusher.

“Plans are being put in place for the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, Hammond, Houma, Belle Chase, Chalmette, Slidell, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pensacola, Hattiesburg, Mobile, Bay Minette, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Crestview, and Pascagoula,” Madsen writes.

On June 13, SoCal Martial Law Alerts (SCMLA) predicted that Gulf states would be evacuated. “Greg Evensen, a retired Kansas Highway Patrolman, estimates that 30-40 million people would need to be evacuated away from the Gulf’s coastline (i.e. at least 200 miles inland),” SCMLA reported.

In order to accomplish this gargantuan feat, the federal government (through FEMA and other agencies) would most likely seek first to control and manage the transportation system and then operate relocation centers to manage evacuees. Toward this end, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already declared the airspace over the oil spill site to be a no-fly zone until further notice. Various sources have indicated that local police, highway patrol, National Guard, US military and foreign troops may be involved in an operation to evacuate the Gulf Coast. In fact, the Governor of Louisiana has already requested evacuation assistance (i.e. National Guard) for his state from the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Madsen’s trusted sources now lend credence to the SCMLA report.

DK Matai reports that by some geologists’ estimates, the methane now escaping into the Gulf may have been part of a massive bubble trapped for thousands of years under the sea floor. “More than a year ago, geologists expressed alarm in regard to BP and Transocean putting their exploratory rig directly over this massive underground reservoir of methane. Warnings were raised before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that the area of seabed chosen might be unstable and inherently dangerous,” writes Matai.

Matai and others fear the methane — under intense pressure (experts estimate the pressure to be between 30,000 and 70,000 pounds per square inch) — may form a bubble that would then rupture the seabed and erupt with an explosion.

“The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion,” Matai explains. “If the toxic gas bubble explodes, it might simultaneously set off a tsunami traveling at a high speed of hundreds of miles per hour. Florida might be most exposed to the fury of a tsunami wave. The entire Gulf coastline would be vulnerable, if the tsunami is manifest. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia might experience the effects of the tsunami according to some sources. ”It is not certain the federal government is concerned about the prospect of a tsunami. However, if Madsen’s sources are correct, they are concerned about the release of deadly hydrogen sulfide, benzene, methylene chloride, and the prospect of toxic rain.

A mass evacuation of the Gulf states would be impossible without a declaration of martial law. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the government all but declared martial law in New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast — it was deemed a “state of emergency,” not officially martial law — and this gave rise to the largest military mobilization since the so-called Civil War. Combat-equipped troops and private contractors went house-to-house to enforce the complete removal of the civilian population in New Orleans and also confiscate guns and leave residents defenseless.

Moreover, FEMA imposed iron-grip censorship of the media. On September 7, 2005, MSNBC’s Brian Williams reported that the city had “reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement.” Williams and his crew were ordered to stop taking photographs by gun-toting National Guard troops. Williams said he experienced “the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.”

Indeed, if Florida and the Gulf states are evacuated as predicted — and again, Madsen’s sources are usually impeccable — a large part of the country will be separated from the United States and placed under martial law.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: martiallaw; methane; obama; oil; oilspill
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Huh? Any geologists, engineers, oil workers or other experts here?
1 posted on 06/24/2010 10:00:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

ping


2 posted on 06/24/2010 10:09:26 PM PDT by unkus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Obama's Katrina, he owns it.


3 posted on 06/24/2010 10:09:38 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (There is no civility in the way the Communist/Marxist want to destroy the USA)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pull BP’s finger.


4 posted on 06/24/2010 10:11:36 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Obama's 911; Going Down in Flames)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Macando reserve is under 4 miles of earth, which is under a mile of seawater. That’s a lot of gravitional weight to overcome in order for a giant bubble of methane gas to explode the seafloor. Realistically, the wellbore itself is the only escape route for such a gas bubble and if the wellbore had pierced a gas bubble at such pressure it would been apparent at millisecond one, not months later.

Of course, it has been clear that significant gas volumes have been escaping the well all along, together with liquid hydrocarbons.


5 posted on 06/24/2010 10:13:44 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m waiting to here from more sources on this too.

This could be nothing more than hysteria, similar to what we see from the ‘human caused planetary warmists’.


6 posted on 06/24/2010 10:14:04 PM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sounds pretty far fetched.


7 posted on 06/24/2010 10:15:50 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( - Eccl. 10:18 -)
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To: SirJohnBarleycorn

If “40 percent by mass” of the well spilling output is methane, then the higher-carbon hydrocarbon content would be a mere trickle by volume.

Also this is supposed to be light SWEET crude, that means there is little or no sulfur in it.


8 posted on 06/24/2010 10:18:42 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: AngieGal

p


9 posted on 06/24/2010 10:20:26 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Follow the money ... who owns stock or interest in the company that manufactures Corexit 9500?

Why is this stuff being used?

10 posted on 06/24/2010 10:20:41 PM PDT by zeaal
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

will ultimately result in the evacuation and long-term abandonment of cities and towns within the 200-mile radius of the oil gusher.
***************************************
So, does this mean the BP and or the gov’t would be paying people for their property and it would all suddenly become Federal Land?

Gosh, with all the land the gov’t owns in the West—with intentions of taking more— then if they also get all this Gulf area...wow...just wow.


11 posted on 06/24/2010 10:21:37 PM PDT by Irenic
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Let's start here:

“The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion,” Matai explains

One of the reasons the water in town comes on when you turn on the tap is that pressure in a system equalizes, less friction, of course.

So the pressure before the well blew out is representative of the formation pressure==and that is the same throughout the formation.

If 16.8 pound per gallon mud was holding that back, the formation pressure is less than .052*the weight of the drilling mud in pounds per gallon* the height of the fluid column. IOW, 16.8*.052*18000, or 15,724 psi. Now that was holding the formation fluid in the formation, so it is the upper limit fo the formation pressure. The pressure exerted by the column of drilling fluid was reduced by roughly 2200 psi when the 16.8 pound mud in the riser was displaced by seawater, roughly 8.5 pounds per gallon, and about 5000 ft. of that. The math gives you a lower limit for the formation pressure, around 13,500 psi. The actual pressure is somewhere between that and 15,724 psi.

Not 50,000.

Methane is virtually insoluable in water at surface pressures, a mile down a bit more so, but if they are measuring that at the surface, the methane bubble has expanded 150 times, so some wild numbers are possible.

Basically, I think you are seeing some really hysterical BS, here, trying to get people in a panic. The end result of that only pumps the 'green' agenda, cap and trade, and panic, which makes fertile ground for Socialist seeds.

Knowledge is power.

While H2S is readily dissolved in water, wherever there is oil on the surface, it would be evident, because it dissolves in oil, too, and comes out of solution very well at warm temperatures and normal atmospheric pressure. In other word, you'd have smelled it by now. NO ONE on any beach cleaning up has the right gear on for H2S exposure, they aren't dead, therefore, there isn't very much out there--nothing close to hazardous amounts.

One more thing, in order to have an explosion (chemical reaction variety), you need to have oxygen in abundance or an oxidizing chemical in the system. Methane, H2S, and oil are fuels, but not oxidizers. The mixture has to be in the right range as well, and to do that in a very large area has defied the ability of arms technicians and inventors for decades.

12 posted on 06/24/2010 10:22:20 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Things could get a lot worse. I might plan for marshall law if I were a southern gent.

“A dire report circulating in the Kremlin today that was prepared for
Prime Minister Putin by Anatoly Sagalevich of Russia’s Shirshov
Institute of Oceanology warns that the Gulf of Mexico sea floor has been
fractured “beyond all repair” and our World should begin preparing for
an ecological disaster “beyond comprehension” unless “extraordinary
measures” are undertaken to stop the massive flow of oil into our
Planet’s eleventh largest body of water.
Most important to note about Sagalevich’s warning is that he and his
fellow scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences are the only
human beings to have actually been to the Gulf of Mexico oil leak site
after their being called to the disaster scene by British oil giant BP
shortly after the April 22nd sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil
platform.
BP’s calling on Sagalevich after this catastrophe began is due to his
being the holder of the World’s record for the deepest freshwater dive
and his expertise with Russia’s two Deep Submergence Vehicles MIR 1 and
MIR 2 [photo below] which are able to take their crews to the depth of
6,000 meters (19,685 ft).
According to Sagalevich’s report, the oil leaking into the Gulf of
Mexico is not just coming from the 22 inch well bore site being shown on
American television, but from at least 18 other sites on the “fractured
seafloor” with the largest being nearly 11 kilometres (7 miles) from
where the Deepwater Horizon sank and is spewing into these precious
waters an estimated 2 million gallons of oil a day.
Interesting to note in this report is Sagalevich stating that he and the
other Russian scientists were required by the United States to sign
documents forbidding them to report their findings to either the
American public or media, and which they had to do in order to legally
operate in US territorial waters.
However, Sagalevich says that he and the other scientists gave nearly
hourly updates to both US government and BP officials about what they
were seeing on the sea floor, including the US Senator from their State
of Florida Bill Nelson who after one such briefing stated to the MSNBC
news service “Andrea we’re looking into something new right now, that
there’s reports of oil that’s seeping up from the seabed... which would
indicate, if that’s true, that the well casing itself is actually
pierced... underneath the seabed. So, you know, the problems could be
just enormous with what we’re facing.”
Though not directly stated in Sagalevich’s report, Russian scientists
findings on the true state of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster are beyond
doubt being leaked to his long-time friend, and former US President
George W. Bush’s top energy advisor Matthew Simmons, who US media
reports state has openly said: “Matthew Simmons is sticking by his story
that there’s another giant leak in the Gulf of Mexico blowing massive
amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. On CNBC’s Fast Money, he says
he’d be surprised if BP lasted this summer, saying this is disaster is
entirely BP’s fault.”
As a prominent oil-industry insider, and one of the World’s leading
experts on peak oil, Simmons further warns that the US has only two
options, “let the well run dry (taking 30 years, and probably ruining
the Atlantic ocean) or nuking the well.”
Obama’s government, on the other hand, has stated that a nuclear option
for ending this catastrophe is not being discussed, but which brings him
into conflict with both Russian and American experts advocating such an
extreme measure before all is lost, and as we can read as reported by
Britain’s Telegraph News Service:
“The former Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) used nuclear weapons on five
separate occasions between 1966 and 1981 to successfully cap blown-out
gas and oil surface wells (there was also one attempt that failed),
which have been documented in a U..S. Department of Energy report on the
U.S.S.R.’s peaceful uses of nuclear explosions.
Russia is now urging the United States to consider doing the same.
Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily newspaper, asserts
that although based on Soviet experience there’s a one-in-five chance a
nuke might not seal the well, it’s “a gamble the Americans could
certainly risk.”
Reportedly, the U.S.S.R. developed special nuclear devices explicitly
for closing blown-out gas wells, theorizing that the blast from a
nuclear detonation would plug any hole within 25 to 50 meters, depending
on the device’s power. Much as I had idly imagined, massive explosions
can be employed to collapse a runaway well on itself, thus plugging, or
at least substantially stanching, the flow of oil..
“Seafloor nuclear detonation is starting to sound surprisingly feasible
and appropriate,” University of Texas at Austin mechanical engineer
Michael E. Webber is quoted observing, while Columbia University
visiting scholar on nuclear policy and former naval officer Christopher
Brownfield wrote in the Daily Beast: “We should have demolished this
well with explosives over a month ago. And yet we watch in excruciating
suspense while BP fumbles through plan after plan to recover its oil and
cover its asset.”
As to the reason for Obama’s government refusing to consider nuking this
oil well, Sagalevich states in this report that the American’s “main
concern” is not the environmental catastrophe this disaster is causing,
but rather what the impact of using a nuclear weapon to stop this leak
would have on the continued production of oil from the Gulf of Mexico,
and which in an energy starved World’s remains the Planet’s only oil
producing region able to increase its production.”

Source unknown and unconfirmed-


13 posted on 06/24/2010 10:23:53 PM PDT by samadams2000 (Someone important make......The Call!)
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To: RepublicanChick

sitting on the tip of FL ping....break out the tinfoil or...maybe not?


14 posted on 06/24/2010 10:27:21 PM PDT by kara2008
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Perspective:
Water in the Gulf: 660,000,000,000,000,000 gallons.
Oil in the Gulf: 126,000,000 gallons.

That comes out to about 5,000,000,000 gallons of water for each gallon of oil.

Or about 70,000 gallons of water per drop of oil.


15 posted on 06/24/2010 10:29:51 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
In addition to methane, large mounts of toxic hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride are leaking into the Gulf according to the EPA and others.

I have to question this statement as well. "Large amounts" is not defined not even in PPM (parts per million), benzene is normal with crude oil, but methylene chloride is pretty unusual. The "EPA and others" means who, exactly?

I consider the source unnamed and unattributed, even if the EPA is mentioned, and they might have just commented about benzene.

16 posted on 06/24/2010 10:29:58 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The only thing I smell is propaganda.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
This is pure BS.


17 posted on 06/24/2010 10:30:10 PM PDT by Lera
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Latest data from BP:

For the first 12 hours on June 24 (midnight to noon), approximately 7,215 barrels of oil were collected and approximately 4,040 barrels of oil and 27.2 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.

Gives us some idea of the ratio of gas to liquids, but of course they are not collecting 100% of what is coming out of the well.

18 posted on 06/24/2010 10:35:18 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: Smokin' Joe

Very impressive! Thanks Smokin’ Joe.


19 posted on 06/24/2010 10:36:05 PM PDT by unkus
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To: Smokin' Joe

Basically, I think you are seeing some really hysterical BS, here, trying to get people in a panic. The end result of that only pumps the ‘green’ agenda, cap and trade, and panic, which makes fertile ground for Socialist seeds.
***************************************************8
I completely agree!

I also find reports from Russia interesting, too...I’ve never been of the opinion they have our best interests in mind.

Shoot, BP is done for and Chavez nationalized American oil rigs in the last few days, a little more help from Obama and pals, the EPA etc— America should be on her knees pretty good.

I think they want us hysterical, so that we run to Big Gov’t to save us but it will be our cage, they will make us dependent and slaves.

The rich and powerful will oversee all the natural resources of this country and we will have just rolled over and given it to them.


20 posted on 06/24/2010 10:37:45 PM PDT by Irenic
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