Posted on 08/29/2012 6:47:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Microbes possibly feeding on the remains of an ancient forest may be generating billions of tons of methane deep beneath Antarctic ice, a new study suggests.
The amount of this greenhouse gas — which would exist in the form of a frozen latticelike substance called methane hydrate — lurking beneath the ice sheet rivals that stored in the world's oceans, the researchers said.
If the ice sheet collapses, the greenhouse gas could be released into the atmosphere and dramatically worsen global warming, researchers warn in a study published in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal Nature.
"There could be tons of methane hydrate beneath the Antarctic ice sheet," said study researcher Jemma Wadham of the University of Bristol’s School of Geographical Sciences. "If you start to thin that ice cover, that hydrate starts to become unstable and turns into gas, and that gas can go into the atmosphere."[Earth in the Balance: 7 Crucial Tipping Points]
Microbes produce methane
Microbes that thrive in extreme environments often create methane as a byproduct of their metabolism; the breakdown of organic carbon under no-oxygen conditions creates methane.
"It's a way of microbes getting energy under really, really oxygen-deprived conditions," Wadham told LiveScience.
The team suspected that icy, silt-laden sediments trapped beneath the continental glacier could house such extremophiles. That’s because the sediments, possible relics of an ancient Antarctic forest and ocean, could provide a carbon-rich food source for methane producers. But drilling up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) through the ice to find out was extremely expensive and difficult.
Instead, Wadham and her colleagues sawed chunks of sediment from the fringes of an Antarctic glacier, where the ice was much thinner. They melted the ice and identified the methane-producing microbes living in the sediment.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“USGS —
Gas hydrates occur abundantly in nature, both in Arctic regions and in marine sediments. Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules. It looks very much like water ice. Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters, and where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer several hundred meters thick.”
The Permian Extinction is generally thought to have included, as a last straw, massive releases of methane. It likely was triggered by the volcanic Siberian Traps and related burning of coal seams. So, I would guess we can get worried when a crack in the continental crust opens up over a thousand mile length and spews lava hundreds of meters thick and ignites the coal in the ground near it over a period of a million years.
In other words, WE ARE ALL DOOMED AND GOING TO DIE!!!!!!
Stop that! Common sense has been outlawed by Executive Order.
OR, we could just tap it and burn it and heat our houses for a million years. How about that, Envirowhackos?
"may be" generating
a new study "suggests"
"If" the ice sheet collapses
the greenhouse gas "could be released" into the atmosphere
There "could be" tons of methane hydrate
Or not. They're just phoning it in now. I don't think think these clowns even believe this crap themselves any more.
Scientists are taught to write like that. It's meant to reflect the fact that scientific research is uncertain, and there is always the possibility that someone else with a different hypothesis or experimental approach can show that the research doesn't show what the first scientist thought it shows.
The time to be extremely wary is when a scientist (or someone claiming to be one) states the results of research as if they are solid, undisputable facts. If they aren't using words like "could be", "we think", "probably", etc., they're quacks who are probably using sciency language to hoodwink you into buying something that you don't need.
Today’s solution is tomorrow’s problem
Years ago the Greenies required that landfills be capped. This generated gases - including methane - that has to be vented in to the atmosphere. Look for the white tubes if you drive by a capped landfill.
Go back and red the second sentence. While they didn’t put a number on what’s in the world’s oceans, it said the amount under the ice would dwarf it.
Something to ponder about what really happened to trigger plant changes in earlier ages of earth
It’s not just down under
Do a search on methane plumes arctic and read more about the theories
A warmer Arctic? I sure hope so. I’ve been buying acreage on Baffin Island in anticipation.
We have done some test drilling on the Alaskan North Slope.
The problem is you not only need to reach it, you need to get the ice crystals to release it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787903/posts
It will be done, but the most economical method it still being researched.
More recent update
Gas-hydrate tests to begin in Alaska
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2833971/posts
13 January 2012
I don't know about methane but they say the CO2 levels were many times higher than they are now when flowering plants first evolved. It doesn't seem logical to me that such a specialized development would first occur when conditions were minimal. Most modern animals, including us, wouldn't exist if it weren't for flowering plants.
Would conditions for us be better if CO2 went back to Triassic era levels? I don't know but we'd better hope nothing causes CO2 to fall below the level that flowering plants can survive.
A thousand years supply of natural gas, awaiting the fiscal climate change that will permit its development...
One of the early (unvented) ones was a few miles from me, in Brick, NJ. Once the landfill was "gone" and took on a parklike appearance, adjoining land suddenly had value during the building boom years. A new subdivision was built.
A few years later, there were unexplained flashovers (not quite an explosion and fire) in midwinter in basements uphill from the site. Frozen ground prevented the methane from rising naturally to the surface; it traveled up and laterally until it hit an escape point- basements. Furnace kicks on and POOF! Accumulated gas in the basement burns off. Not enough concentration for a BANG or a BOOM, thank goodness.
Those homes now have meters in the basements attached to warning systems.
actually, I meant to type “planet change” but yeah- when the plants die it sure changes the planet
Some theories now that an asteroid impact didn’t cause the atmospheric change that killed the dinosaurs, but that the change was triggered by massive volcanic and/or methane eruptions or releases, perhaps from undersea
We know there is an entire dead frozen trapped continent under the Antarctic ice shelf with mountains, valleys and rivers- the piri reis map and other modern sources
I took right off in spite of your typo didn't I? LOL
While looking for charts of Triassic period CO2 levels (didn't find them although I've seen them before, hmmm) I saw other theories about bacteria causing the massive die-offs too. Plenty of theories but no solid conclusions.
well, there’s this
http://www.livescience.com/15168-embargoed-methane-burst-cleared-dinos.html
and this
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030828071722.htm
something else to keep us awake at night :-)
OK, fellers, y'all might want to stand back a bit. FIRE IN THE HOLE! ;^)
“That’s how I feel in church on Sunday morning after Mexican food on Saturday night.”
The trick is managing controlled releases while everyone is singing real loud. Just keep a straight poker face if anyone says, “Ewwww, what died?”.
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