Oceanographers Probe Huge Methane Hydrate Deposits Off New Zealand's North Island - Stuff

[hatrack]

A team of international scientists set to sail from Wellington is to investigate big deposits of methane which some overseas researchers view as a potential slow-action time bomb in climate change. The scientists, on board the German research vessel Sonne, will be working within sight of beach-goers on the North Island's east coast while they probe deposits of frozen methane seen both as a huge new source of natural gas fuel and as a major concern in terms of global warming.

The co-leader of the research voyage, Jens Greinert, a GNS Science geochemist, said scientists worldwide were keen to know the conditions under which methane from the seafloor enters the atmosphere, and the speed of chemical reactions involved in the breakdown of gas hydrates.

Methane hydrates are a solid ice-like form of water that contains methane gas molecules "caged" in tiny cavities. They are usually stable at the sea floor at water deeper than about 500m, and are usually embedded in the first 500m of sediment. Dr Greinert said yesterday many questions pivoted on whether warming of the oceans could lead to the hydrates breaking down and releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases.

EDIT

"The amount here is so high. . . you could say the entire east coast region beween Cook Strait and East Cape is one pavement of gas hydrates along the Hikurangi margins," he said.

EDIT

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/3924341a7693.html

[Nihil]

1. Good article

> Dr Greinert said there was scientific acceptance that gas hydrates
> released huge amounts to the atmosphere and triggered a major warming
> of the Earth 55 million years ago.

> The warming of 5degC over 10,000 years had impacts that lasted 170,000
> years, including mass extinction in the oceans as the water was made
> more acidic.

Worth reading all of it ... mentions the possible tsunamis from subsequent
slumps after the hydrates escape and leave the "outgassed" seabed unstable.

[nannah]

2. as a long time reader and infrequent poster, I have always appreciated

the articles you bring to DU, hatrack. Thanks for your efforts.