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I know that mining methane hydrate off of the ocean floor has been a discussion. We would be wise to try and get that out and contain it / burn it before it is

I know that mining methane hydrate off of the ocean floor has been a discussion. We would be wise to try and get that out and contain it / burn it before it is released into the atmosphere as pure methane.

JoeAltmaier 5y ago
It's been forming there for a billion years. There's no hurry.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  The hurry is if warming temperatures cause it all to sublimate and release rapidly as gas, AKA the clathrate gun.
  - JoeAltmaier 5y ago
    Its distribution is sparse and on the surface. Its been forming for a billion years. Conclusion: it's sublimating all the time and being replaced. If there's any danger, its from the billions of cubic meters under the ocean floor (the source of the nodules, seeping from underneath). More carbon than all the oil we ever burned in our civilization so far. Is that in any danger of accelerated release? I've not heard of that.
    - vkou 5y ago
      > Conclusion: it's sublimating all the time and being replaced. In the long-term, yes, it will eventually reach a steady state. In the long term, though, we'll all be dead. In the short-term, on timescales that human beings care about, no, we can release too much of it too quickly, before the system reaches a steady equilibrium. Methane has an atmospheric half-life measured in decades, so getting too much of it, too fast, can significantly spike temperatures.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- vegetablepotpie 5y ago
  Global warming is causing undersea methane to be released much faster than it has in the past. > For the second year in a row, his team have found crater-like pockmarks in the shallower parts of the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea that are discharging bubble jets of methane, which is reaching the sea surface at levels tens to hundreds of times higher than normal. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-gia...

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

It's been forming there for a billion years. There's no hurry.

nitrogen 5y ago
The hurry is if warming temperatures cause it all to sublimate and release rapidly as gas, AKA the clathrate gun.
- JoeAltmaier 5y ago
  Its distribution is sparse and on the surface. Its been forming for a billion years. Conclusion: it's sublimating all the time and being replaced. If there's any danger, its from the billions of cubic meters under the ocean floor (the source of the nodules, seeping from underneath). More carbon than all the oil we ever burned in our civilization so far. Is that in any danger of accelerated release? I've not heard of that.
  - vkou 5y ago
    > Conclusion: it's sublimating all the time and being replaced. In the long-term, yes, it will eventually reach a steady state. In the long term, though, we'll all be dead. In the short-term, on timescales that human beings care about, no, we can release too much of it too quickly, before the system reaches a steady equilibrium. Methane has an atmospheric half-life measured in decades, so getting too much of it, too fast, can significantly spike temperatures.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
vegetablepotpie 5y ago
Global warming is causing undersea methane to be released much faster than it has in the past. > For the second year in a row, his team have found crater-like pockmarks in the shallower parts of the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea that are discharging bubble jets of methane, which is reaching the sea surface at levels tens to hundreds of times higher than normal. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-gia...