Methane Hydrate Stocks "Overstated" - BBC

[hatrack]

"Stocks of a potential new source of natural gas in the sea-floor are much smaller than previous estimates have suggested, an expert claims.

EDIT

The findings are presented in the academic journal Earth Science Reviews.

Gas hydrates are deposits of ice-like crystals that trap natural gas under conditions of high pressure and low temperature such as those found in sea-floor sediments or in permafrost.

EDIT

But gas hydrate recovery carries a considerable risk. Destabilisation of hydrate reserves could cause sudden, massive releases of gas from the seafloor, threatening drilling platforms and ships. "Drilling gas hydrates is estimated to be six times more expensive than exploitation of oil and other gas sources," said Prof Bahman Tohidi, director of the Centre for Gas Hydrate Research in Edinburgh."

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3493349.stm

[Oggy]

1. Probably not a bad thing

It was Methane Hydrate that is now thought to have partly caused the end of the Permian period 250 Million years ago ( along with Global Warming).


<snip>
Methane is an even more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The result of its release was runaway global warming: a rise in temperature led to changes that raised the temperature further, and so on. The warming appears, alongside the acid rain, to have killed the plants. Starvation then killed the animals.
<snip>

More at:-

http://www.mng.org.uk/green_house/threat/threat4.htm

[jmcgowanjm]

2. The Second Kyoto Accord/ S=(E-F)/T

S=Entropy
E=Total Energy
F=Free Energy
E-F =Energy needed to maintain the organization of system
T=Constant Temperature

The Law of Entropy

All living things attempt to modify their environment for
their own needs, by creating what for them is order.  
The creation of order is one definition of negative entropy.  
One of the definitions of life might be the ability of a life form
to create order.  Rocks or other inanimate objects do,
not possess this property called negative entropy.  Death
might be defined as the inability of a living thing to
continue to create negative entropy for its use. As long as a
life form exists, it creates negative entropy, which we observe
as the creation of order.  We do NOT understand how this negative entropy is created.  
The creation of negative entropy
is a reversal of the law of entropy.  The total system entropy is lowered with the injection of
negative entropy into the system.

We are desperately looking for negative entropy.
Nope, not methane hydrates. next!

Thanx for the posts, folks. May we live in interesting times,
indeed.