Clathrates?

[memories of 63]

Is this an issue with methane clathrates destabilising. If so we're all doomed :o

[Gray-Wolf]

Is this an issue with methane clathrates destabilising. If so we're all doomed

To actually log them escaping free is new to me. We've measured elevated levels of dissolved methane above the arctic polynias but we've never witnessed pure 'outgassing'.

Last year we saw the first rise in methane concentrations (in the atmosphere) for 10yrs. I found this worrysome as it coincided with the record arctic melt and tales from the polar year teams of permafrost 'letting go' and allowing the once frozen overburden to slump downslope (not only releasing the gas slowly but effectively squeezing it out!). If we now face the prospect of shelf clathrites destasbilising we are in real trouble and all 'worse case scenario' bets are off!!!

[Essan]

The Independent (not surprisingly) also cover this story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/c...omb-938932.html

[picog]

The Independent (not surprisingly) also cover this story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/c...omb-938932.html

Has this methane column been found simply because researchers have been out specifically looking for methane release? It may have been there for years, but never have been spotted. Alternatively, it could be very recent. Would you expect methane levels to be higher than "normal" at the end of the melt season anyway?

[memories of 63]

Has this methane column been found simply because researchers have been out specifically looking for methane release? It may have been there for years, but never have been spotted. Alternatively, it could be very recent. Would you expect methane levels to be higher than "normal" at the end of the melt season anyway?

From what I understand there are massive (I use that word advisedly) beds of methane clathrates (a type of ice that holds methane in a cage structure). The MP of these are just above FP of water and there are fragile so a rise in sub sea temps or earthquakes can destabilise them and cause a huge (catastophic - from the mathmatical definition) release of methane.

[kiwistonewall]

From what I understand there are massive (I use that word advisedly) beds of methane clathrates (a type of ice that holds methane in a cage structure). The MP of these are just above FP of water and there are fragile so a rise in sub sea temps or earthquakes can destabilise them and cause a huge (catastophic - from the mathmatical definition) release of methane.

The Methane Clathrates are 800m deep in the soil, so hardly going to be released by the likely temperature rises in the next few centuries (assuming we get any temperature rise at all).

The Myth is that this stuff is sitting in the permafrost and Tundra just waiting to be boiled off. It can't exist unless under about 20atmospheres of pressure - so in deep water, or in deep sediments. And under that pressure, it's stable at much higher temperatures as well.

Changing the temperature is almost totally irrelevant in releasing Methane. Though it is a target for extraction!

This is a Myth. Just Google Methane Clathrate stability for background.