My OperaMethane emissions and oceans
2005年11月12日土曜日16:33:28
A better understanding of how greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide and methane behave under natural conditions is important for our handling of the global climate change problem.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock (cow dung). It comes from swamps and thawing tundra (resulting in positive feedback).
Beneath the ocean floor there are massive deposits of “frozen” methane in the form of gas hydrates.
These gas hydrates are actually natural methane-water ices, which form under conditions of high pressure and low temperature in many areas worldwide. Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules. It looks very much like water ice. Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters and, where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer up to several hundred meters thick.
In research supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) scientists studied gas hydrate hidden beneath the seafloor off Canada’s western coast.
Read the original press release from IODP (Scientists Gain New Insights Into “Frozen” Methane From Beneath Ocean Floor) at
The same story, but with pictures of gas hydrate, is found at
U.S. Geological Survey has a fact sheet (of September 1992) about gas hydrate at:
http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html
Ole
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock (cow dung). It comes from swamps and thawing tundra (resulting in positive feedback).
Beneath the ocean floor there are massive deposits of “frozen” methane in the form of gas hydrates.
These gas hydrates are actually natural methane-water ices, which form under conditions of high pressure and low temperature in many areas worldwide. Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules. It looks very much like water ice. Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters and, where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer up to several hundred meters thick.
In research supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) scientists studied gas hydrate hidden beneath the seafloor off Canada’s western coast.
Read the original press release from IODP (Scientists Gain New Insights Into “Frozen” Methane From Beneath Ocean Floor) at
The same story, but with pictures of gas hydrate, is found at
- TerryDaily: http://www.terradaily.com/news/climate-05zzzzzr.html
- ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051107083255.htm
U.S. Geological Survey has a fact sheet (of September 1992) about gas hydrate at:
http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html
Ole
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