Methane

[unixronin]

New reports indicate that undersea methane clathrate beds off the coast of Siberia are collapsing.  In places methane is being released so fast that it doesn't have time to dissolve, but is bubbling to the surface in columns.  Millions of tons of methane are being released into the atmosphere, and methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.  The amount of methane observed being released from the Siberian continental shelf may be as great as the previous estimated total methane release rate from all the world's oceans combined.

So who else has read John Barnes' Mother of Storms?  A massive collapse of clathrate beds was his starting scenario...

Comments

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

Me. The clathrate beds combined with a strong El Nino and "very" active Pacific typhoon season.

That's all we need right now.

This may be part of something bigger..

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dansgaard-Oeschger_events

A rapid rise in Greenland(Arctic) of 8 degrees C in less than 40 years, followed by prolonged cool downs with a periodicity of ~ 1500 years +/- 500.

Re: This may be part of something bigger..

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Interesting ....

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

I haven't read "Mother of Storms" ... care to give a summary?

I first found out about the undersea methane beds in a documentary that also mentioned a massive release off the coast of Norway (1000's?) of years ago, which they think caused a massive explosion... makes me wonder how likely that is with the Siberian methane beds.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The short version: A sudden warming event caused by a massive release of methane, itself caused by a massive collapse of clathrate beds off the Alaskan North Slope, leads to severe weather with some very unanticipated events. In particular, Pacific sea-surface temperatures rise just enough that the two hurricane-forming regions in the Pacific grow sufficiently to merge (it would actually only take a few degrees), making most of the Pacific one giant hurricane-forming region and spawning a monster hurricane completely beyond any previous human experience.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

shit. already? :(

haven't read that book... just typical geogeek awareness...