I just learned about Methane Hydrates thanks to BP's drilling disaster in the Gulf Coast. Sciforums has touched on Methane Hydrates but I don't see a particular thread for this. http://www.google.com/search?q="methane hydrates" site:sciforums.com&hl=en&lr=&prmd=n&start=20&sa=N 194 results. Methane Hydrates may be the fuel of the future and an ecological blessing or trying to make them the fuel of the future could cause ecological disaster. Global warming could release Methane Hydrates into the atmosphere which would accelerate global warming. Others talk about sequestering carbon as Methane Hydrates to mitigate global warming. From http://www.jaec.info/Automation-Com...able-energy/fire-in-the-ice-methane-hydrates/ from http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=133
Not a methane hydrate but 60 billion cu. ft. of methane is disolved in the deep water of 1000 sq. mile lake Kivu which is part of the border between Rwanda and Congo. It is a great blessing and great danger as co-mixed with the CH4 is CO2, which is heaver than air. If nothing is done, at least 10s of thousands will die (perhaps even more than 100,000 will die) when the lake naturally "turns over" and these gases come rapidly to the surface, displacing the air, as happen several years ago on a much smaller scale from much smaller lake. Every life form requiring oxygen died for miles around the lake. Fortunately a pilot plant is already harvesting the CH4 and using it to generate electric power, and much larger production is planned. See video of this existing plant and discussion of the great potential of this lake to supply all of Rwands's energy needs for years at: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/05/04/rwanda.kivu.exploding.methane/index.html Where you can read: "... in 1986, when the much smaller lake Nyos in the West African country of Cameroon "turned over" and blanketed the region with carbon dioxide, killing some 1,700 people. A 2006 study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology claimed that the release of only a fraction of the gas in Kivu could have "catastrophic consequences for the densely populated region." It added that gas concentrations could approach critical saturation levels "within this century." ..." Here is unlikely (IMHO) means to end all life on Earth via methane hydrates: From: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2494605&postcount=14 , but see threads posts 3 & 8 also
