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Post by moabiter on Jun 18, 2010 18:19:08 GMT -8
Why We (should) Care about Methane in the Gulf of Mexico Category: methane • oil spill • poison Posted on: June 7, 2010 2:47 PM, by Deborah Blum Which is another way of letting us know that there's a lot of methane down there. In fact, by some accounts the hydrocarbons pouring out of the BP leak (yes, I do enjoy making that connection) are about 60 percent crude oil and 40 percent methane. In fact, so much methane has been pouring into the gulf - by one estimate a million times more than from the natural seepage - that scientists are now preparing to measure the extent of the spill's reach - those underwater plumes, in fact, by tracking methane. Very handy, you might say. But the more interesting point is that the scientists tracking these plumes believe that their massive spread underwater is largely being driven by the methane component in this leak. To quote the Gulf Oil Blog of the University of Georgia Department of Marine Sciences: "Think of it as gas-saturated oil that has been shot out of a deep sea cannon under intense pressure - it's like putting olive oil in a spray can, pressurizing it and pushing the spray button. What comes out when you push that button? A mist of olive oil. This well is leaking a mist of oil that is settling out in the deep sea." There are also those who believe that an excess of methane in water is poisonous to fish. Part of this argument is that fish are designed to take in dissolved gases through their gills, making methane fairly insidious. There's some evidence that shows that high concentrations of methane are harmful to the nervous system and circulatory system of many fish species. To be fair, not everyone considers this a serious problem; methane is not the most reactive of gases in terms of toxicity.But it all adds up to a reminder that this isn't just an "oil" spill. It isn't just about what we see. It's also about what we don't see. And the time to acknowledge that - and here's an idea, actually try to do something about it - happens to be now. That would be: NOW. scienceblogs.com/speakeasyscience/2010/06/httpwwwnewsweekcom20100606what.php___________________________________ MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET Inhalation This product is an asphyxiant gas which can cause unconsciousness/death if OXYGEN levels are sufficiently reduced. In high concentrations, vapors are narcotic and may cause headache, fatigue, dizziness and nausea. www.devonenergy.com/CorpResp/ehs/Documents/msds/DVN%20NA%20MSDS%20-%20Methane.pdf
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Post by moabiter on Jun 21, 2010 22:25:17 GMT -8
Methane and Climate Change: From the Amazon to the Gulf of Mexico Commentary by Nikolas Kozloff, special to mongabay.com June 20, 2010 In surveying the environmental damage unleashed from the BP oil spill, could we be missing the 800-pound gorilla in the closet? While oil poses undeniable ecological risks, methane (CH4) could prove daunting as well... While many will focus on methane’s impact upon local wildlife, the compound, also known as marsh gas, also stands to affect climate. Indeed, though some of the methane from the Gulf will dissolve in the water, other parts will be emitted to the Earth’s atmosphere. That is a problem, since methane is already contributing to our global warming dilemma. Once in the atmosphere, methane absorbs terrestrial infrared radiation that would normally move into outer space. This phenomenon can contribute to atmospheric warming, which is why methane is considered a greenhouse gas. Though methane is not as abundant as carbon dioxide, it is twenty times more potent and scientists believe that over the eons it has played a key role in spurring climate change. Some of that history, which has to do with oceans, now pertains to the disaster which we confront in the Gulf. When it is released into the ocean-atmosphere system, methane reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. This in turn may result in something called marine dysoxia, a phenomenon which kills off oxygen-using animals. Some experts believe that marine dysoxia may be responsible for major oceanic extinctions. “We know that millions of years ago, there were vast undersea eruptions where methane gas escaped just like it is doing right now,” says oceanographer John Kessler of Texas A&M University. “It is thought that this methane eventually contributed to climate change,” he adds. Fifty five million years ago, there’s evidence of a submarine landslide off the coast of Florida and huge volcanic eruptions under the North Atlantic. That in turn may have released trapped methane which made global temperatures skyrocket by 4-8 degrees Celsius. At the time, summer heat waves scorched the landscape in Spain, giving rise to desert terrain. As far north as England and Belgium, palm mangroves thrived while Mediterranean algae proliferated in the Arctic Ocean... Methane emissions however are also linked to the oil and gas industry. Indeed, right now in the U.S., oil and gas operations represent approximately 23 percent of yearly methane emissions and 2 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. And while underwater methane emissions are certainly worrying, this is just the tip of the iceberg: every day, the oil industry contributes to global warming simply through its routine operations. news.mongabay.com/2010/0620-kozloff_methane.html
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Post by moabiter on Jun 21, 2010 22:27:12 GMT -8
CH4 + 2O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O
floods & radiation...
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Post by moabiter on Jun 23, 2010 9:20:28 GMT -8
Levels of methane in deep-ocean waters near the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are 10,000 to 100,000 times higher than normal, and in some very hot spots "we saw them approaching 1 million times above" what would be normal, says ocean chemist John Kessler of Texas A&M University in College Station. Kessler and a group of oceanographers from Texas and the University of California-Santa Barbara spent 10 days doing deep-water sampling from 35 different sites within 7 miles of the leak, close to the ocean floor. www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-06-23-hnb23_ST_N.htm
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Post by moabiter on Jul 15, 2010 9:50:06 GMT -8
Gas and Methane Levels At Record - July 3, 2010 As much as one million times the normal level of methane is showing up near the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, enough potentially to create dead zones in the water. "These are higher levels than we have ever seen at any other location in the ocean itself," according to sources cited by Reuters. The "flow team" of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas, which primarily contains methane, is being released into the Gulf waters with every barrel of oil. www.huffingtonpost.com/dk-matai/gulf-oil-gusher-methane-c_b_634550.html
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Post by moabiter on Jul 19, 2010 19:02:25 GMT -8
Methane hydrate — A major reservoir of carbon in the shallow geosphere? Keith A. Kvenvoldena U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025 U.S.A. Accepted 7 July 1988. Available online 31 March 2003. AbstractMethane hydrates are solids composed of rigid cages of water molecules that enclose methane. Sediment containing methane hydrates is found within specific pressure-temperature conditions that occur in regions of permafrost and beneath the sea in outer continental margins. Because methane hydrates are globally widespread and concentrate methane within the gas-hydrate structure, the potential amount of methane present in the shallow geosphere at subsurface depths of < not, vert, similar2000 m is very large. However, estimates of the amount are speculative and range over about three orders of magnitude, from 2 · 103 to 4 · 106 Gt (gigatons = 1015 g) of carbon, depending on the assumptions made. The estimate I favor is not, vert, similar 1 · 104 Gt of carbon. The estimated amount of organic carbon in the methane-hydrate reservoir greatly exceeds that in many other reservoirs of the global carbon cycle — for example, the atmosphere (3.6 Gt); terrestrial biota (830 Gt); terrestrial soil, detritus and peat (1960 Gt); marine biota (3 Gt); and marine dissolved materials (980 Gt). In fact, the amount of carbon may exceed that in all fossil fuel deposits (5 · 103 Gt). Because methane hydrates contain so much methane and occur in the shallow geosphere, they are of interest as a potential resource of natural gas and as a possible source of atmospheric methane released by global warming. As a potential resource, methane hydrates pose both engineering and production problems. As a contributor to a changing global climate, destabilized methane hydrates, particularly those in shallow, nearshore regions of the Arctic Ocean, may have some effect, but this effect will probably be minimal, at least during the next 100 years. Chemical GeologyVolume 71, Issues 1-3, 15 December 1988, Pages 41-51 Origins of Methane in the Earth [/size] www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V5Y-4888J23-10&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F15%2F1988&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1403367589&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cadc0f5b9c07679b65cf6476c5af16d8
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Post by moabiter on Jul 20, 2010 8:15:33 GMT -8
The BP spill: What do the methane bubbles mean? posted on July 20, 2010, at 10:20 AM BP's cap is still holding tight, but some are concerned that methane seepages are a sign the seabed has been destabilized — a truly catastrophic scenario... Why is the pressure lower than expected?There are conflicting theories. Some scientists and engineers think it's because the oil reservoir is becoming depleted, so the oil isn't under as much pressure. Others suspect that the well casing is damaged, and that if the currently seen seepage isn't from the busted well, we'll soon find some that is. That could be very bad... What's the worst-case scenario?The sea floor above the oil reservoir crumbling. Oil or gas "seep could be the first sign that the ocean floor is breaking up," says Michael Reilly in Discovery News. The BP cap may be "like sticking your finger in a leaking dam," he adds, and "if another leak springs up nearby, you know the dam's about to crumble." But "does that mean it's time to panic that oil from the Macondo well... is set to burst open through the seafloor in a new, unstoppable gusher?" asks Christopher Hellman in Forbes. "Probably not." Well, what are the odds of an unstoppable gusher?"With this extensive monitoring we're having, we're in a good position to not have a catastrophic event," said BP's Kent Wells. And that statement, says Time's Walsh. "I think is meant to make us feel better." theweek.com/article/index/205160/the-bp-spill-what-do-the-methane-bubbles-mean_________________________ Oil Spill: The Well Holds—For Now Posted by Bryan Walsh Monday, July 19, 2010 at 7:27 pm ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/07/19/oil-spill-the-well-holds%E2%80%94for-now/#ixzz0uEvcZG4R
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Post by moabiter on Sept 9, 2010 9:12:43 GMT -8
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Post by clone on Nov 4, 2010 23:48:27 GMT -8
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Post by clone on Feb 16, 2011 0:40:20 GMT -8
Study finds massive flux of gas, in addition to liquid oil, at BP well blowout in Gulf February 13, 2011 A new University of Georgia study that is the first to examine comprehensively the magnitude of hydrocarbon gases released during the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil discharge has found that up to 500,000 tons of gaseous hydrocarbons were emitted into the deep ocean. The authors conclude that such a large gas discharge—which generated concentrations 75,000 times the norm—could result in small-scale zones of "extensive and persistent depletion of oxygen" as microbial processes degrade the gaseous hydrocarbons. www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-massive-flux-gas-addition-liquid.html"hydrocarbon gases, such as methane and pentane, which were deposited in the water column"
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