Posted on 10/10/2004 11:11:47 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - (KRT) - Scientists may have discovered a new source of fuel far below the Earth's surface.
Fossil fuels get their name from the ancient plants and animals that decayed to form oil, gas and coal. But now scientists have created methane gas without any biological matter, suggesting that the fossil fuel supply may not be entirely dependent on fossils after all.
The research opens up the possibility of a vast reservoir of methane gas more than 60 miles below the Earth's surface and could also help scientists hunting for signs of life on Mars and other planets.
"There has been a lot of speculation about the origin of natural gas and oil," said Laurence Fried, a computational chemist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and a member of the research team.
Most scientists believe fossil fuels are the product of organic material buried long ago, cooked by the Earth's interior heat and trapped within rock layers beneath the surface. But a small group has long supported the theory that oil and gas could result from chemical reactions involving common minerals deep within the Earth.
To test the idea, scientists at the Carnegie Institute of Washington used a device called a diamond anvil cell to subject marble, iron oxide and water to the extreme pressures and temperatures typical between 60 and 120 miles below the Earth's surface.
The mixture reached temperatures greater than 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures between 50,000 and 110,000 times greater than at the Earth's surface. Using cutting-edge X-ray imaging techniques, the scientists found that methane bubbles had formed.
The research was published last week in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
A team of researchers at the Livermore lab led by Fried used their knowledge of the intense heat and pressure involved with nuclear weapons to understand how gas could form under such high pressures. Normally pressure keeps gas from being released, like carbonated soda under pressure in a sealed bottle. The carbonation isn't released until the pressure drops when the bottle is opened.
Fried's team calculated that the methane bubbles were the result of a "phase separation," similar to the way oil separates from water in salad dressing.
"We haven't proven that there are large reserves of methane in the Earth's mantle, but we've shown that the chemical reactions are possible," said Fried.
And even if the gas is there, concentrated in vast oceanlike reservoirs, tapping into it is well beyond today's technological capabilities. Never mind that the current typical oil and gas wells don't penetrate much farther than six miles into the Earth's crust - at depths of 60 miles or more, the solid crust gives way to a semisolid region known as the mantle where rock is so hot that it is soft enough to flow very slowly.
Even if drilling to that depth were possible, keeping the hole opened once the drill is removed presents another challenge.
"It would have to be some sort of heroic effort," said Fried. "But it's amazing how fast problems are solved."
Beyond the potential for a virtually limitless supply of fuel, the findings have implications for the hunt for life on other planets.
If methane gas was always the product of biological matter, then detecting methane in the atmosphere of another planet would be a sure sign that some sort of life form had existed there at some point, said geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar of the University of Toronto.
But since the new experiment has shown that the creation of methane from completely nonbiological materials is at least possible, the discovery in March of methane on Mars can't be taken as a smoking gun that life was present there.
On the other hand, the presence of a lot of hydrocarbons at depth could allow microbial communities to thrive. "It could provide them with the energy they need to subsist since they can't use photosynthesis deep below the surface," Lollar said.
Microbes have been discovered deep in the Earth's crust, and Lollar is working with NASA to determine how these organisms survive so they know what to look for when studying the subsurface of Mars.
"Now that we understand that life subsists deeper in the crust on Earth, they realize they should be looking deeper on Mars," she said.
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Sorry to rain on your parade but anything that's 60 miles below the earths surface is going to require a awful lot of energy to bring to the surface.
What is the source of methane hydrate?
Methane from onions! Many old timers swear by this theory, especially if they're fried.
BTTT!!!!!!
ping
Yeah...shale oil was so profitable...let's go for some 60 mile deep marble methane now.
Come to think of it, though...maybe that's how the Mole Men in Underdog were so successful. Could it be that they had marble methane long before we Surface Men even dreamed it up?
I, for one, have never believed that either came from the decomposition of organic matter.
It's been here since the formation of the earth.
Gas does exist at great depths, and it's conceivable that as it percolates through some porous rock it will cool and depressure enough to allow it to become condensate.
Of course, the limiting factor is the presence of porous rock.
At 60 miles below the earth's surface the overburden pressure is about 300,000 psi. I visualize the rock as being a solid, impenetrable mass.
If there is a regeneration of gas and if it does percolate through the mantle and crust with that much pressure and through that much rock, what keeps it from coming to the surface as a gigantic blowout?
The rock above the crust is much less dense than the crustal rock.
Thanks for the ping, B4. It's work time.
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Is there non-organically derived marble? Marble is metamorphicized limestone; which is in turn derived from deposits of shell, coral, etc., in sea beds.
I suppose it's possible that there is precambrian or even pre-life limestone and thus marble. The carbon had to be somewhere.
Do you have a reference to such? The deepest well I've heard of is only 12,000 meters. That's far short of 20 miles.
The temptation to post pictures of fart-lighting is almost more than I can stand, but I'll try to restrain myself.
The article really presents nothing new - except perhaps to the author. Abiogenic methane is known from the creation of the solar system.
"If methane gas was always the product of biological matter, then detecting methane in the atmosphere of another planet would be a sure sign that some sort of life form had existed there at some point, said geologist Barbara Sherwood Lollar of the University of Toronto."
Where do they get these people?
Would n't this mean that in or near a volcano you should be able to find Methane?
I remember some guy started drilling for gas in an old volcano crater in Europe and didn't find any. His idea was the same as this one.
"methane gas more than 60 miles below the Earth's surface"
I wonder how they are plannig on getting down that far. From what I know the largest rigs can only go to about 35,000 feet. How in the world would you pull a pipe that long out of the ground in order to change the drill bit.
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