cbus2005
All-American
I have been reading a book called the Swarm lately. It's really good, I'd recommend it to anybody who is looking for a good read. It deals with alot of ocean processes and weird changes in sort of a mysterious way (I havent gotten that far in) however, one of the big parts of the book is the issue of Methane Hydrates. It really got caught my interest in what they are. After reading the book, you can see how they are a potential solution to our energy crisis, but it is also playing with fire.
Methane Hydrates form in the depths of oceans. Methane forms when organic material within ocean silt and floors decomposes over thousands of years. Deep down on the ocean seafloor past the continental shelf, the temperature and conditions are ideal for creating methane hydrate. When the methane forms from decomposed plankton, algae, plants, fish, and organic material, the icy cold water combined with high ocean pressure traps the hydrate within frozen water. In a sense, the water freezes around the Methane with millions of microscopic chambers holding methane within it. The ocean is covered with this material at depths between 600 meters- 2000 meters.
As we all know, Methane can be used as a fuel. It's combustible, clean, and easy to use. Also, we're running out of gas, oil, and coal in our modern world of energy usage. So why not Mine the Methane as a solution to the problem?
Here are some really interesting facts and figures that go along with the arguement.
1. In each piece of methane hydrate, when the hydrate melts, the methane within expands to 164 times the volume of the hydrate itself.
2. The ocean floor alone holds about 2 times more methane than the world has had Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal combined.
3. Methane burns clean and does not cause any effects of global warming.
4. Methane mining could support our world for hundreds of more years on fossil fuels.
5. There is methane off the coast of virtually every country, and in some areas beneath the frozen tundras.
Now, after reading the reasons, you can readily see why energy companies are so wide-eyed about the prospect of mining methane from the ocean depths.
However, it's dealing with fire. Let me explain.
Methane Hydrate forms under very specific conditions. It is very unstable, and because of that, it is hard to mine effectively. In many places, a 1 degree temperature shift will unstablilize trillions of pounds of the hydrate causing it to melt and dissapear before our eyes. Because of this, most people who have tried to mine the hydrate in the past have found that the hydrate has melted, and all the methane has released before it ever reached the top of the ocean to be refined.
Not only is Methane unstable, but it is becoming increasingly evident how certain deep see environments are dependent on it for life. Fish and animals eat bacteria, and bacteria are dependent on the methane hydrates for survival. It's a VERY complex ecosystem that we have only began to understand within the ocean depths.
Furthermore, our ocean itself is held in place by this hydrate. The ice-like structures hold down non-frozen pockets of methane deeper down on the ocean bottom. These pockets never froze because they are hotter being closer to the earth's mantel. If the hydrate on top of them were gone, the hydrate would be released right into the atmosphere. However, this is not the only thing hydrates hold in place. In many areas of the ocean, specifically the continental shelfs, hydrates actually hold the shelves themselves up. They form the layers and prevent the cliffs from creating landslides and eventually just ending up as one gigantic flat plane gradually sloping down like a bowl. If the hydrates on these shelves were to dissapear, we would see massive underwater landslides which could trigger largescale tsunamis.
Finally, here is the killer. Methane is one of the strongest greenhouse gases. It has 30 times the greenhouse-holding power that co2 has. Although this wouldn't be a big deal with mining, it could be much more dire than we think due to the unstable nature of the hydrates. Say for Example, a large shelf were to be released into the atmosphere. This could very well warm earth a degree or so. When this warming occurs, it would continue to melt more and more hydrate in a chain reaction that would superheat the earth. Think REAL global warming. Something that would happen over a period of 100-200 years heating the earth more than we ever thought could happen. At the same time, it would pump incredible amounts of fresh water into the ocean, and kill off huge ancient ecosytems around the world. Think almost along the lines of day-after tomorrow type effects (except within a longer time span)
It has been found that a reaction like this occurred in the very distant past, and is one theory to one of the mass-extinctions in earth's history.
So the issue is, do we try to mine the hydrate to save our energy crisis with the risk of tampering with something we don't know enough about? Or do we stay put, leave it alone, and weather out the energy crisis until we become more reliant on other energy sources.
Business and politics will be greedy for the hydrates as they would be a HUGE source of revenue, and freedom from energy problems. However, it could set in motion events that nobody knows the result of.
Methane Hydrates form in the depths of oceans. Methane forms when organic material within ocean silt and floors decomposes over thousands of years. Deep down on the ocean seafloor past the continental shelf, the temperature and conditions are ideal for creating methane hydrate. When the methane forms from decomposed plankton, algae, plants, fish, and organic material, the icy cold water combined with high ocean pressure traps the hydrate within frozen water. In a sense, the water freezes around the Methane with millions of microscopic chambers holding methane within it. The ocean is covered with this material at depths between 600 meters- 2000 meters.
As we all know, Methane can be used as a fuel. It's combustible, clean, and easy to use. Also, we're running out of gas, oil, and coal in our modern world of energy usage. So why not Mine the Methane as a solution to the problem?
Here are some really interesting facts and figures that go along with the arguement.
1. In each piece of methane hydrate, when the hydrate melts, the methane within expands to 164 times the volume of the hydrate itself.
2. The ocean floor alone holds about 2 times more methane than the world has had Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal combined.
3. Methane burns clean and does not cause any effects of global warming.
4. Methane mining could support our world for hundreds of more years on fossil fuels.
5. There is methane off the coast of virtually every country, and in some areas beneath the frozen tundras.
Now, after reading the reasons, you can readily see why energy companies are so wide-eyed about the prospect of mining methane from the ocean depths.
However, it's dealing with fire. Let me explain.
Methane Hydrate forms under very specific conditions. It is very unstable, and because of that, it is hard to mine effectively. In many places, a 1 degree temperature shift will unstablilize trillions of pounds of the hydrate causing it to melt and dissapear before our eyes. Because of this, most people who have tried to mine the hydrate in the past have found that the hydrate has melted, and all the methane has released before it ever reached the top of the ocean to be refined.
Not only is Methane unstable, but it is becoming increasingly evident how certain deep see environments are dependent on it for life. Fish and animals eat bacteria, and bacteria are dependent on the methane hydrates for survival. It's a VERY complex ecosystem that we have only began to understand within the ocean depths.
Furthermore, our ocean itself is held in place by this hydrate. The ice-like structures hold down non-frozen pockets of methane deeper down on the ocean bottom. These pockets never froze because they are hotter being closer to the earth's mantel. If the hydrate on top of them were gone, the hydrate would be released right into the atmosphere. However, this is not the only thing hydrates hold in place. In many areas of the ocean, specifically the continental shelfs, hydrates actually hold the shelves themselves up. They form the layers and prevent the cliffs from creating landslides and eventually just ending up as one gigantic flat plane gradually sloping down like a bowl. If the hydrates on these shelves were to dissapear, we would see massive underwater landslides which could trigger largescale tsunamis.
Finally, here is the killer. Methane is one of the strongest greenhouse gases. It has 30 times the greenhouse-holding power that co2 has. Although this wouldn't be a big deal with mining, it could be much more dire than we think due to the unstable nature of the hydrates. Say for Example, a large shelf were to be released into the atmosphere. This could very well warm earth a degree or so. When this warming occurs, it would continue to melt more and more hydrate in a chain reaction that would superheat the earth. Think REAL global warming. Something that would happen over a period of 100-200 years heating the earth more than we ever thought could happen. At the same time, it would pump incredible amounts of fresh water into the ocean, and kill off huge ancient ecosytems around the world. Think almost along the lines of day-after tomorrow type effects (except within a longer time span)
It has been found that a reaction like this occurred in the very distant past, and is one theory to one of the mass-extinctions in earth's history.
So the issue is, do we try to mine the hydrate to save our energy crisis with the risk of tampering with something we don't know enough about? Or do we stay put, leave it alone, and weather out the energy crisis until we become more reliant on other energy sources.
Business and politics will be greedy for the hydrates as they would be a HUGE source of revenue, and freedom from energy problems. However, it could set in motion events that nobody knows the result of.
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