Seabed Methane Hydrates
March 24th, 2005 | Miscellaneous
Wired News: Playing With Frozen Fire
Should we even mess with this stuff? It sounds dangerous.
For example, about 55 million years ago the oceans burped — releasing enormous quantities of methane, according to Jim Kennett, a marine geologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the ocean’s methane burp is thought to be the result of warmer ocean temperatures caused by abrupt global warming. “It’d be like the average temperature increasing seven degrees in your lifetime,” Kennett said.
It isn’t known why the oceans warmed enough to release the methane from its frozen mud sarcophagus.
Will our species growing demand for energy once again override common sense?
I think if we’re going to mess with this stuff we need to build underwater extraction facilities. We will likely need plants 300 m or more underwater to process this stuff into Methane which can be piped back to shore for use. This will limit the exposure of the material to the atmosphere. We would also need to find some way to return the carbon dixoide created by burning the methane back to the ground so that it does not further contaminate our atmosphere.
If these technical challenges can be met, then I think we could proceed cautiously on this potential energy source. Especially if it’s as abundant as they say it is.
