Gulf oil full of methane, adding new concerns

[Turborama]

Source: AP

It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100618/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

---

I've been worrying about the impact the methane coming out of the well will have on climate change since first hearing about it. Sadly, no-one even knows how much is coming out and the impact it's having directly in the ocean, as this article goes on to say.

[CanonRay]

1. Isn't methane the worst of the greenhouse gases?

Just what we needed.

[Donnachaidh]

6. there is an idea that methane caused a die out quite a while back

I think it was the Permian era.

This is NOT good.

[bemildred]

23. Permian–Triassic extinction event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

Methane hydrate gasification

Scientists have found worldwide evidence of a swift decrease of about 10 ‰ (parts per thousand) in the 13C/12C isotope ratio in carbonate rocks from the end-Permian (δ13Ccarbonate of -10 ‰).<43><94> This is the first, largest and most rapid of a series of negative and positive excursions (decreases and increases in 13C/12C ratio) that continues until the isotope ratio abruptly stabilises in the middle Triassic, followed soon afterwards by the recovery of calcifying life forms (organisms that use calcium carbonate to build hard parts such as shells).<11>

A variety of factors may have contributed to this drop in the 13C/12C ratio, but most turn out to be insufficient to account fully for it:<95>

* Gases from volcanic eruptions have a 13C/12C ratio about 5 to 8 ‰ below standard (δ13C about -5 to -8 ‰). But the amount required to produce a reduction of about 10 ‰ worldwide would require eruptions greater by orders of magnitude than any for which evidence has been found.<96>
* A reduction in organic activity would extract 12C more slowly from the environment and leave more of it to be incorporated into sediments, thus reducing the 13C/12C ratio. Biochemical processes use the lighter isotopes, since chemical reactions are ultimately driven by electromagnetic forces between atoms and lighter isotopes respond more quickly to these forces. But a study of a smaller drop of 3 to 4 ‰ in 13C/12C (δ13C -3 to -4 ‰) at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) concluded that even transferring all the organic carbon (in organisms, soils, and dissolved in the ocean) into sediments would be insufficient: even such a large burial of material rich in 12C would not have produced the smaller drop in the 13C/12C ratio of the rocks around the PETM.<96>
* Buried sedimentary organic matter has a 13C/12C ratio 20 to 25 ‰ below normal (δ13C -20 to -25 ‰). Theoretically, if the sea level fell sharply, shallow marine sediments would be exposed to oxidization. But 6,500-8,400 gigatons (1 gigaton = 109 metric tons) of organic carbon would have to be oxidized and returned to the ocean-atmosphere system within less than a few hundred thousand years to reduce the 13C/12C ratio by 10 ‰. This is not thought to be a realistic possibility.<7>
* Rather than a sudden decline in sea level, intermittent periods of ocean-bottom hyperoxia and anoxia (high-oxygen and low- / zero-oxygen conditions) may have caused the 13C/12C ratio fluctuations in the Early Triassic;<11> and global anoxia may have been responsible for the end-Permian blip. The continents of the end-Permian and early Triassic were more clustered in the tropics than they are now (see map above), and large tropical rivers would have dumped sediment into smaller, partially enclosed ocean basins in low latitudes. Such conditions favor oxic and anoxic episodes; oxic / anoxic conditions would result in a rapid release / burial respectively of large amounts of organic carbon, which has a low 13C/12C ratio because biochemical processes use the lighter isotopes.<97> This, or another organic-based reason, may have been responsible for both this and a late Proterozoic/Cambrian pattern of fluctuating 13C/12C ratios.<11>

Other hypotheses include mass oceanic poisoning releasing vast amounts of CO2<98> and a long-term reorganisation of the global carbon cycle.<95>

However, only one sufficiently powerful cause has been proposed for the global 10 ‰ reduction in the 13C/12C ratio: the release of methane from methane clathrates;<7> and carbon-cycle models confirm that it would have been sufficient to produce the observed reduction.<95><98> Methane clathrates, also known as methane hydrates, consist of methane molecules trapped in cages of water molecules. The methane is produced by methanogens (microscopic single-celled organisms) and has a 13C/12C ratio about 60 ‰ below normal (δ13C -60 ‰). At the right combination of pressure and temperature it gets trapped in clathrates fairly close to the surface of permafrost and in much larger quantities at continental margins (continental shelves and the deeper seabed close to them). Oceanic methane hydrates are usually found buried in sediments where the seawater is at least 300 meters (984 ft) deep. They can be found up to about 2,000 meters (6,562 ft) below the sea floor, but usually only about 1,100 meters (3,609 ft) below the sea floor.<99>

The area covered by lava from the Siberian Traps eruptions is about twice as large as was originally thought, and most of the additional area was shallow sea at the time. It is very likely that the seabed contained methane hydrate deposits and that the lava caused the deposits to dissociate, releasing vast quantities of methane.<100>

One would expect a vast release of methane to cause significant global warming, since methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas. A "methane burp" could have released 10,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent - twice as much as in all the fossil fuels on Earth.<36> There is strong evidence that global temperatures increased by about 6 °C (10.8 °F) near the equator and therefore by more at higher latitudes: a sharp decrease in oxygen isotope ratios (18O/16O);<101> the extinction of Glossopteris flora (Glossopteris and plants which grew in the same areas), which needed a cold climate, and its replacement by floras typical of lower paleolatitudes.<10><102>

However, the pattern of isotope shifts expected to result from a massive release of methane do not match the patterns seen throughout the early Triassic. Not only would a methane cause require the release of five times as much methane as postulated for the PETM,<11> but it would also have to be re-buried at an unrealistically high rate to account for the rapid increases in the 13C/12C ratio (episodes of high positive δ13C) throughout the early Triassic, before being released again several times.<11>

[hatrack]

8. Not the worst, but 26X as effective at trapping longwave radiation as CO2

Some of the synthetics (CFC, HFC, etc.) are way, WAY more powerful, but are emitted in relatively small quantities.

[HockeyMom]

2. How will this affect people living on the Gulf?

Does this mean they will be breathing the menthane if they live near the shores?

[dipsydoodle]

5. Not unless

they want to fly up in the air with it - its lighter than air.

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[dipsydoodle]

4. I'd previously read

the actual percentage by volume was 90%. Natural gas pretty much IS methane. The 90% did actaully refer to the entire Gulf field which occupies 25,000 sq miles : not just BP's little bit.

It also happens to be lighter than air which means.............

[zeemike]

10. You probably need to look up Methane/s chemistry.

I did a few month back and it is not as simple as you might think because there are various kinds of methane and some of them are heaver than air.
And this thing about methane hydrates is also a complicated thing....and the thing I worry most about this is that if this is a big layer of hydrates it could keep coming out no matter what we do.

[dipsydoodle]

13. CH4 is CH4

Its only heavier than air at low temperatures such as when tranported as LPG. Its also non toxic other than the fact you wouldn't be around when it burning.

[zeemike]

17. Yes but it is not just CH4.

Here is a link to a good explanation to hydrates and a cut form that page


One of the most common host molecules is water, and the water-based clathrates are commonly referred to, particularly in the oil and gas business, as "hydrates." Gas hydrates have guest molecules that exist in the gas phase at standard temperature and pressure. The most common is methane (methane hydrate), but many gases, including carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and larger hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane, can stabilize the water lattices and form a "hydrate." When only very small molecules are present (hydrogen or helium, for example), no hydrate will form because the available guests are not large enough to support, or be trapped in, the cavities.
http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/oil-gas/FutureSupply/MethaneHydrates/about-hydrates/chemistry.htm

Edited to ad this cut.
Structure H: In 1987, Ripmeester and others discovered a third hydrate structure (structure H) that requires the cooperation of two guest gases (one large and one small) to be stable. A unit cell of this new "double hydrate" consists of 34 water molecules producing 3 small cavities, 12 slightly larger cavities, and 1 relatively huge cavity. It is this large cavity that allows structure H hydrates to incorporate large molecules (such as butane and larger hydrocarbons), given the presence of other smaller help gases to fill and support the remaining smaller cavities. Structure H hydrates are rare, but are known to exist in the Gulf of Mexico, where supplies of thermogenically-produced heavy hydrocarbons are common. It is probable that other, more exotic, hydrate structures remain to be discovered.

[dipsydoodle]

18. I know that

but the subject here is methane.

[zeemike]

20. Well I didn't until just recently.

Because I know little about chemistry.
But this explained it in a way I could understand and explains why they have measured benzene in the air.

[dipsydoodle]

21. Filling station forecourts

are just as dangerous with respect to benzene. We had warnings in Europe about that years ago.

[Zorra]

7. Looks like Brackish Petroleum may have drilled clear down to hell. nt

[Peace Patriot]

9. Do you know what? I just felt something like a shock wave of the emotion that swept over me

when my sister called me, on the morning of September 11, 2001, and said, "Turn on the news." This release of methane could be the final blow to Planet Earth. It is the worst news yet out of the Gulf and I didn't think it could get any worse. As I understand it, methane release is the worst consequence of the melting of the Arctic ice. This alone will greatly accelerate climate change. And like just about everyone--in our very disinformed, propagandized population--I had no idea of the methane threat in the Gulf. This is terrible. It is staggeringly terrible.

Do you get the feeling sometimes that the privileged and powerful among us are suiciding the human race? That was one ripple I felt in the aftermath of 9/11--the mania to invade Iraq and steal its oil; the utter madness of rushing into an unjust, genocidal war, which not only destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the 'cause' of oil, it sucked up oil and other resources, polluted everything it touched, destroyed our financial solvency and diverted us from the urgent planetary environmental crisis that needed all of our creativity, attention and resources to solve. Madness. The Iraq War was madness. Degulation was madness. The "war on terror" is madness. The "war on drugs" is another form of that madness. Telling people to "go shopping" was madness. Seeking maximum profit for the rich few by cutting corners on safety in deep water oil drilling is madness, and destroying every democratic mechanism by which 'we, the people' could have prevented this is MADNESS. The rich are INSANE and we have been unable to prevent them from inflicting their insanity on the rest of us.

Madness with a method. Do you know that, in the same month that the Anthrax Congress gave its war powers away to Mad George--October 2002--they also passed a $4 billion electronic voting machine boondoggle by which voting machines containing 'TRADE SECRET' code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, were fast-tracked all over the U.S.A., and that one of the handful of corporations that benefited from this, ES&S, which just bought out Diebold, and has even scarier far rightwing connections than Diebold, now has an 80% monopoly of the U.S. voting machine "market." Their 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines are now everywhere, (s)electing people like Jim De Mint for Congress. Like SC, half the states do NO AUDIT AT ALL and have no ability to recount the votes. The other half do a miserably inadequate 1% audit (automatic check of machine totals against actual ballots). 99% to 100% of the votes cast in the U.S. are never seen by human eyes, and never counted by human hands in the light of day. We needn't wonder how Bush-Cheney could have been re-elected, amidst revelations of the lies about WMDs, torture and the outing of CIA counter-proliferation agents, not to mention massive tax cuts for the rich. We needn't wonder about (s)elected officials calling for more oil drilling and apologizing to BP. We needn't wonder why things are as they are--with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld running around free, enjoying their billions, while Great Depression II hits the rest of us like an earthquake. We need to know that all of this is quite deliberate destruction of our democracy by the sick rich. The mad rich. The genocidal rich. The planet-killing rich. And we need to CURTAIL them NOW, starting with VISIBLE vote counting, or it's all over for the rest of us and for the whole human project and for the Earth itself.

[Proletariatprincess]

11. Wonderful post, Peace Patriot.

It is indeed madness. Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

[defendandprotect]

16. So much so well said - thank you!

Nature is all --

We have to stop judging everything by the yardstick of a dollar bill --

a meaningless artificial commodity.

Capitalism/corporatism are merely means of enslaving populations -- moving wealth

and natural resources from the many to the few.

And this is more than worth repeating --

Madness with a method. Do you know that, in the same month that the Anthrax Congress gave its war powers away to Mad George--October 2002--they also passed a $4 billion electronic voting machine boondoggle by which voting machines containing 'TRADE SECRET' code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, were fast-tracked all over the U.S.A., and that one of the handful of corporations that benefited from this, ES&S, which just bought out Diebold, and has even scarier far rightwing connections than Diebold, now has an 80% monopoly of the U.S. voting machine "market." Their 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines are now everywhere, (s)electing people like Jim De Mint for Congress. Like SC, half the states do NO AUDIT AT ALL and have no ability to recount the votes. The other half do a miserably inadequate 1% audit (automatic check of machine totals against actual ballots). 99% to 100% of the votes cast in the U.S. are never seen by human eyes, and never counted by human hands in the light of day. We needn't wonder how Bush-Cheney could have been re-elected, amidst revelations of the lies about WMDs, torture and the outing of CIA counter-proliferation agents, not to mention massive tax cuts for the rich. We needn't wonder about (s)elected officials calling for more oil drilling and apologizing to BP. We needn't wonder why things are as they are--with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld running around free, enjoying their billions, while Great Depression II hits the rest of us like an earthquake. We need to know that all of this is quite deliberate destruction of our democracy by the sick rich. The mad rich. The genocidal rich. The planet-killing rich. And we need to CURTAIL them NOW, starting with VISIBLE vote counting, or it's all over for the rest of us and for the whole human project and for the Earth itself.

Evidently, only voters are concerned about computer voting -- not the Democratic Party!!

Re the Anthrax, evidently actual mail is still being held up and Congress is still telling citizens

best to use other means to communicate with them! A very successful, long term interference

between Congress and public - shutting it down for 3 months or more and still interrupted.

[Trillo]

19. I share your feelings, but perhaps its all for the best.

Money is their game, it's their abstraction of value. All the rest of us have little choice but to go along. Mention outlawing MONEY, and a zillion defenders who need to purchase their food at markets and pay their rents come out in defense, claiming its a neutral tool; and who can say they're wrong, I certainly can't, I'm in the same boat at they. There's less disagreement about the organization of money which is known as the corporation being a danger, itself leading to corporatism and the formalizing of authoritarianism into oligarchic and monopolistic hierarchies.

This in turn creates many trickle downs including, but certainly not limited to, election fraud and highly-organized propaganda for undermining public protections such as democracy and general welfare. The basic organizing principal of corporations is money, and it seems more addicting to humans than heroin.

Anyway, I share your feelings, but perhaps its all for the best. Money doesn't exist in Mother Earth's natural world. I'm grateful for all the good she has provided to all of us and our ancestors, and I'm sorry that we humans were not able to fully appreciate non-human life, life such as that which live in earth's oceans.

[Lorien]

22. It gets worse:

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

but the ultimate outcome is the same. :-(

[Turborama]

26. Thank you for that link

Informative and scary article on a great website. Have you posted that as an OP elsewhere on DU yet?

The embedded video is very good, too.

Bookmarked.

[Turborama]

24. The worshippers of Mammon are ruthlessly killing our habitat and using Jesus as an excuse, basically

Maybe these so called Christians should actually read the New Testament instead of only getting as far as the first chapter of Genesis...

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.
—Matthew 6:19-21,24

[FBI_Un_Sub]

12. Do a flash distillation

and recover the methane for use as a fuel. That's pretty much what they do now with high methane crude -- except they flare it instead of recovering it.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.

[Sub Atomic]

15. I just checked out this YouTube video about Benzene and Hydrogen Sulfide gases now onshore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGxGVGiD3yk

Any DUers down there, get your Go Bags ready.

[izquierdista]

25. Lots of it is staying on the bottom

Clathrate. Look it up, Google it. There is going to be LOTS of it around the wellhead for a long time to come. If a large enough deposit forms, it could keep the seas above oxygen depleted for a long time as it slowly dissociates. In those videos of the leak, whenever you see clouds of white being ejected, that is a belch of methane that is turning into clathrate as it exits the wellhead. That white gunk is stable at the temperature and pressure of the sea floor, so all it's going to do is accumulate....for now.