Methane Thought To Be Responsible For Mass Extinction

ScienceDaily ^ | 28 August 2003 | Gregory Ryskin

[PatrickHenry]

What caused the worst mass extinction in Earth's history 251 million years ago? An asteroid or comet colliding with Earth? A greenhouse effect? Volcanic eruptions in Siberia? Or an entirely different culprit? A Northwestern University chemical engineer believes the culprit may be an enormous explosion of methane (natural gas) erupting from the ocean depths.

In an article published in the September issue of Geology, Gregory Ryskin, associate professor of chemical engineering, suggests that huge combustible clouds produced by methane gas trapped in stagnant bodies of water and suddenly released could have killed off the majority of marine life and land animals and plants at the end of the Permian era -- long before dinosaurs lived and died.

The mechanism also might explain other extinctions and climate perturbations (ice ages) and even the Biblical flood, as well as be the cause of future catastrophes.

Ryskin calculated that some 10,000 gigatons of dissolved methane could have accumulated in water near the ocean floor under high pressure. If released quickly, perhaps triggered by an earthquake, the resulting cloud of methane would have an explosive force about 10,000 times greater than the world's entire stockpile of nuclear weapons. The huge conflagrations plus flooding and overturned oceans would cause the extinctions. (Approximately 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were lost.)

"That amount of energy is absolutely staggering," said Ryskin. "As soon as one accepts this mechanism, it becomes clear that if it happened once it could happen again. I have little doubt there will be another methane-driven eruption -- though not on the same scale as 251 million years ago -- unless humans intervene."

[DittoJed2]

They deal with that. See:

The mechanism also might explain other extinctions and climate perturbations (ice ages) and even the Biblical flood
And here I thought there was no evidence for a Biblical flood! Guess, all that gas rose to the top, produced condensation, and it rained sulphur water for 40 days and nights killing all the animals and people not on the ark. And here I thought they drowned. They just got gassed.

[Redleg Duke]

You mean the dinosaurs were into smoking and lighting farts?

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Who knew? LOL

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

http://www.designeduniverse.com/webthink/uploads/post-12-1062105130.gif

[JusPasenThru]

Why sweat extinction? Just wait a bit and a bunch of new critters, new and improved, will evolve.

[aruanan]

I have little doubt there will be another methane-driven eruption -- though not on the same scale as 251 million years ago -- unless humans intervene."

Unless humans intervene....what a dope. I suppose we could try to mine all those methane hydrates. It's also self-serving to posit an explosion of methane as opposed to an asteroid strike as a cause for the extinction. It's more likely that an oceanic asteroid strike was responsible for the liberation of methane gas from the hydrates than that dissolved methane somehow just happened to be spontaneously released and ignited.

[AndrewC]

Soda-pop extinction theory bump.

[AndrewC]

General, that is just a blowhard. Not useful and unlike the very useful methane producing south end of a north bound cow.

Methane hydrate is a very interesting compound.

Methane Hydrate

WHAT do you get when you combine water and swamp gas under low temperatures and high pressures? You get a frozen latticelike substance called methane hydrate, huge amounts of which underlie our oceans and polar permafrost. This crystalline combination of a natural gas and water (known technically as a clathrate) looks remarkably like ice but burns if it meets a lit match.

[Aric2000]

It is indeed interesting, and sounds kind of dangerous as well.

Enough dissipates and it can topple an Oil rig? and if it disaccociates, you have enough methane to cause quite an explosion.

But if we could somehow harvest this stuff, the possibilities are endless. And Methane burns cleanly, so that would make it very advantageous!!

Cool link....

[AndrewC]

But if we could somehow harvest this stuff, the possibilities are endless.

The quantities of the compound are amazing. --->By some estimates, the energy locked up in methane hydrate deposits is more than twice the global reserves of all conventional gas, oil, and coal deposits combined..

According to this page World Estimated Recoverable Coal we have 1,083,259 million short tons of coal alone.

[null and void]

This crystalline combination of a natural gas and water (known technically as a clathrate) looks remarkably like ice but burns if it meets a lit match.

KEWL! Self boiling water...