Clathrate gun hypothesis and how the Gulf disaster could kill millions

[Ron]

Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher.

Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous.

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.



The same methane that makes coal mining operations hazardous and leads to horrendous mining accidents deep under the earth also can present a high level of danger to certain oil exploration ventures.

Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized

More than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane.

Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit.

None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP's drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit.

Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.

By some geologists' estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile toxic and explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen.

The worse case scenerio in these articles is a methane bubble bursting through the ruptured seabed causing a tsunami large enough to flood the entire state of Florida or enough methane is released to change the world climate.    

http://www.helium.com/items/1866957-bp-oil-spill-methane-gulf-of-mexico

Other related info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

http://pangea.stanford.edu/research/Oceans/GES205/methaneGeology.pdf

I'm not sure what to think about this  

[Jamisjockey]

If I suddenly stop posting...You'll know why

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

If I suddenly stop posting...You'll know why

ran outa beverages?

[AZRedhawk44]

I've heard that pressure at the well head is around 60,000PSI.

That's 15,000 feet away from the methane/oil deposit targeted by the well.

It very well could be over 100k PSI and is rupturing/venting the remaining 40kPSI through cracks in the well's pipe under the seabed.

Those two relief wells that will intersect with the damaged well could be shattered, also, if they breach into a 100kPSI environment.  You'd then have 3 vents at about 20-30kPSI each + leakage from ruptures, and as you tried to plug one of them, you just increase output pressure at the others.

Of course, even if you can't shut it down ever, you can at least harvest from a 25kPSI environment.  Right now, we're barely getting a third of the 60kPSI environment's output.

I don't think the seabed is going to suddenly lift up and get all asplodey from this, though.  We'll end up releasing the pressure from this.

Think of it this way:  Would you rather have an exploded oil rig and a bad oil spill.. but at least you lanced and bled off a major subterranean kabloomie over about 50 years... or would you rather never have experienced this problem and then a meteorite the size of a house slams into the Gulf sea bed and makes the Methane chlorate go all kabloomie all at once?  Or some other "natural" tectonic event causes it to go 'splode?

[MechAg94]

Why don't they just say Natural Gas instead of methane? 

Don't most all oil wells have some natural gas either mixed in or above/below the oil? 

Also, methane is dangerous to miners because it creates explosive mixtures within the tunnels.  That is not the same is what is happening in the Gulf.  I guess it was more sensational to use the mine reference rather than pointing out it is the same gas I use on my stove top.

[HankB]

You know, this reminds me a lot of a science-fiction book I read several decades ago . . . IIRC, a huge leak of gas from under the seabed caused a suffocating cloud of vapor that caused all kinds of trouble. (It was a lot of years ago, but I believe the gas in that story was nitrogen.)

If methane gas is actually under 100 Kpsi, it would have burst free in due course anyway - that's a LOT of pressure to contain, well, forever.  Hmmm . . . wonder how long a bubble like that would keep houses warm and power plants running?

Interestingly, I actually heard someone on TV conjecture that the oil bubbling up may be "abiotic" in nature, so the leak would never stop. So maybe dead dinosaurs and ancient plants aren't the source of all oil? And if that's the case, there may be a whole lot more of it down there than people think. Interesting thought . . . time will tell if it has any validity or is utter rubbish.

[AZRedhawk44]

So maybe dead dinosaurs and ancient plants aren't the source of all oil?

I'm no geologist by any stretch, but that's my guess.  I think it is a natural byproduct of the Earth's mantle and core.  Magma-poop, if you will.

That being said, I think there are millennia of the stuff built up and we are tapping the backpressure elements of it for the last 100 years.  Peak oil may be real, but I don't think there's a resultant down-swing because we drank up all the dead dinosaurs.  Just a flatline at the peak where we discovered all the convenient leak-points where the Earth vents its petroleum naturally.

[Jamisjockey]

ran outa beverages?

I was actually just contemplating having an ice cold Shiner, speaking of beverages. 

[KD5NRH]

Also, methane is dangerous to miners because it creates explosive mixtures within the tunnels.  That is not the same is what is happening in the Gulf. 

What?  You mean there's no air in the bottom of the well for it to mix with?

 

[lupinus]

I'm no geologist by any stretch, but that's my guess.  I think it is a natural byproduct of the Earth's mantle and core.  Magma-poop, if you will.

That being said, I think there are millennia of the stuff built up and we are tapping the backpressure elements of it for the last 100 years.  Peak oil may be real, but I don't think there's a resultant down-swing because we drank up all the dead dinosaurs.  Just a flatline at the peak where we discovered all the convenient leak-points where the Earth vents its petroleum naturally.

I'm inclined to agree.

If hydrocarbons come from dead dino's, how many were running around the moons of Saturn?

[MillCreek]

You know, this reminds me a lot of a science-fiction book I read several decades ago . . . IIRC, a huge leak of gas from under the seabed caused a suffocating cloud of vapor that caused all kinds of trouble. (It was a lot of years ago, but I believe the gas in that story was nitrogen.)

Sounds kind of like what happened at Lake Nyos:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos

Or the theory that gas hydrate releases on the seabed cause a sudden upwelling of foam that causes ships to sink if they are trapped in the foam surge:  http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/bermuda.html

[stevelyn]

I'm no geologist by any stretch, but that's my guess.  I think it is a natural byproduct of the Earth's mantle and core.  Magma-poop, if you will.That being said, I think there are millennia of the stuff built up and we are tapping the backpressure elements of it for the last 100 years.  Peak oil may be real, but I don't think there's a resultant down-swing because we drank up all the dead dinosaurs.  Just a flatline at the peak where we discovered all the convenient leak-points where the Earth vents its petroleum naturally.

That's pretty much what Jerome Corsi laid out in his book Black Gold, Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and Oil Politics.

[vaskidmark]

And just how do you think the USGC is going to be able to enforce a NO SMOKING policy across the entire Gulf of Mexico if they can't even count the PFDs on a few barges?

stay safe.

[lupinus]

And just how do you think the USGC is going to be able to enforce a NO SMOKING policy across the entire Gulf of Mexico if they can't even count the PFDs on a few barges?

stay safe.

Send them back to port. All of them. Everything.

[El Tejon]

A cleansing *expletive deleted*che for the South?

I think this is right up there with the supervolcano of the West or the bear stories they tell in Alaska, ghost stories told by children to scare each other before bed.

[mtnbkr]

A cleansing *expletive deleted*che for the South?

I think this is right up there with the supervolcano of the West or the bear stories they tell in Alaska, ghost stories told by children to scare each other before bed.

Got run off from Tam's blog so now you're going to make an ass of yourself here?

Chris

[Iain]

I'm inclined to agree.

If hydrocarbons come from dead dino's, how many were running around the moons of Saturn?

See, that's one of those statements that sounds clever...

[Balog]

Have they found evidence of hydrocarbons outside of the earth? Honest question, I have no idea.

Also, I tend to favor an abiotic view of oil production. But I think getting acceptance for the concept that "we don't really know for sure" is more inportant than quibbling over unproven theories.

[KD5NRH]

Have they found evidence of hydrocarbons outside of the earth? Honest question, I have no idea.

Aren't aa few of the gas giants mostly methane, at least in their upper atmospheres?

[Iain]

Also, I tend to favor an abiotic view of oil production. But I think getting acceptance for the concept that "we don't really know for sure" is more inportant than quibbling over unproven theories.

Why do you tend to favour it?

It finds pretty much no favour amongst professionals in the field.

[El Tejon]

Got run off from Tam's blog so now you're going to make an ass of yourself here?

Say what now?

[El Tejon]

The theory is nothing more than overstatement.

I'm fairly certain that overstatement is necessary for science today.  (I think it is tied into the funding or such).