Exploiting Fossil Fuels a good thing?

[amicus]

History Channel, Mega Disasters, Episode 7, originally aired 10/09/07, and again tonight, "Methane Explosion Eduction"

Petroleum under pressure produces gases, among them, 'Methane', which one scientist promoted as the 'cause', of the Bermuda Triangle Mysteries, as when Methane rises to the surface and permeates the sea water, the water become unable to support the weight of a vessel...and it, well, sinks.

Methane exists in huge amounts under the oceans, so they say, and can be displaced by earthquakes and even movement of the tectonic plates as the continents are continually on the move.

Further, with continual subduction taking place, all the petroleum created long ago is drawn down into the mantle to be recycled in earth's endless, well, almost endless, changing character.

So...our cute little environmental tree huggers may be doing a huge disservice to all mankind in resisting the exploitation of Methane deposits which may one day billow up, explode with a bolt of lightning, and make us all crispy critturs.

Ain't that a gas!

Amicus

 

[oggbashan]

Methane can also be harnessed to be used as a fuel.

A couple of months ago I visited a redundant anthracite mine. When in operation up to the 1970s, all its power needs were met from methane pumped from the workings. It was known as a "gassy" mine.

The methane generated steam to run the winding machinery, to compress air for the jack hammers, to produce electricity to power motors and the lighting for the whole operation, and the pumps to remove water from the various levels.

The mine closed because the anthracite seams became uneconomic to extract. It is now sealed because the methane has filled all the galleries and shafts.

If it were to become economic to produce the anthracite, then methane would probably power the whole operation again.

Og

 

[Handley_Page]

There's a lake in Africa under which there's a lot of Methane. It's been tapped and produces the fuel for the local village and the brewery.

I think methane is cleaner to burn too, (CO2 + water).

I wonder, Ogg, if there's enough methane in that mine to make it economically possible to get it out (even just to power the locality).

Natural Gas; nature's answer !

 

[penandpaper]

Ah, the History Channel.

They also continually repeat (when they're not focusing on Hitler) facts about the giant cauldron Yellowstone sits on, and how it erupts every 500,000 years - but it's been 600,000! We're doomed.

 

[xssve]

Old news - the catch being that the likelihood of these frozen methane hydrate reservoirs being released suddenly and catastrophically increases with a rise in ocean temperatures, perhaps as little as Two or Three degrees.

i.e., if it's more frequent in the Bermuda Triangle, it's probably due to warmer water temperatures.

 

[Weird Harold]

Petroleum under pressure produces gases, among them, 'Methane', which one scientist promoted as the 'cause', of the Bermuda Triangle Mysteries, ...

Methane exists in huge amounts under the oceans, so they say, and can be displaced by earthquakes and even movement of the tectonic plates as the continents are continually on the move.
...

Burning all that Methane might be a good idea -- if nothing else, it will convert it all to CO2 which is a lesser greenhouse gas compared to Methane.

However, the methane produced by "petroleum under pressure" has nothing to do with those Methane deposits at the bottom of the sea -- at least not until enough time has passed for the water pressure and sedimentation to turn it (and the decomposing dead sea-life that generated it) into fossil hydrocarbons like Coal and Oil.

If the Hysterical Channel (when it's not being the Hitlery Channel) can be believed, the only way mankind will be able to survive is if we move into space habitats where we can control the environmental hazards inside and dodge asteroids, meteors, and comets. If we all move into space this year, we might even spread out enough to survive the killer cosmic ray beam when a neighboring galaxy destroys the Milky Way galaxy.

 

[amicus]

Chuckles...what a pessimistic crowd...except for Ogg, which is reassuring.

According to the piece, Methane was created before oil and natural gas, way back when the only life on earth was in the oceans. They also theoretically attribute an extinction level event, following the demise of the dinosaurs, caused by immense uprisings of methane that created lightning, ignited and toasted the entire planet...but I am glad to hear some criticism of the Hysterical Channel other than my own...thank you...

Amicus

 

[trysail]

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/letters/87/8730letters.html

 

[Weird Harold]

According to the piece, Methane was created before oil and natural gas, way back when the only life on earth was in the oceans.

My point was that Methane isn't a Fossil fuel -- although although fossil fuels might once have been methane. Methane is a renewable resource, and retrieving the Methane Hydrate at the bottom of the seas is a way to get away from using fossil fuels (fuels retrieved from rocks)

They also theoretically attribute and extinction level event, following the demise of the dinosaurs, caused by immense uprisings of methane that created lightning, ignited and toasted the entire planet...

People keep coming up with these pet theories -- comets, asteroids, meteors, the dinosaur equivalent of flying-pig influenza, climate change, ad nauseum -- but they never consider the possibility that they could all be right to some degree.

Consider the location of the Volcanos cited as an alternative to the Chixalub Meteor -- As far as I can see it's just about the right place for an "exit wound" for the Chixalub strike but the proponents of the volcano extinction theory won't consider that both might have contributed and/or be connected. <shrugs>

but I am glad to hear some criticism of the Hysterical Channel other than my own...thank you...

Amicus

History Channel still has a few good series, but I'm thinking I may just give up on it for the most part -- as I did TLC aftr it wandered away from its focus on Learning. The History Channel is losing its focus on history and promoting every crackpot with a tinfoil hat and a video camera.