A rather disturbing thought came to mind other day (no, not more "forks up sensitive places stuff :P) no, serious stuff Deep ocean has huge amounts of carbon dioxide in places, the cold and pressure keeps it dissolved, some from atmosphere some from deep volcanic vents etc So what happens when methane clathrates start bubbling up as they melt from climate change, reducing local water density and providing a medium to let the carbon dioxide dissolve out as well? issues being: increasing rates of global warming and possibly safety for ships (enough bubbles will reduce water density to point where ships could sink) or even enormous explosions (gas bursts as gas hits surface but would require huge volumes, and methane ignitions from the clathrates) note the infamous lake gas "overturns" that killed people in Africa, where deep lakes in volcanic craters suffered enormous gas eruptions as landslides let dissolved carbon dioxide etc bubble out of the water, killing thousands of people, kind of like shaking a soft drink bottle making the gas burst out. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 07:59:13 +0000
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