The one source that backs up the 'news' links to a random blog of no obvious authority.
Admittedly given the news blackout anything at all could be happening down there, including an invasion by Daleks. But I think a cracking sea floor and/or a rise of 30ft would have triggered a few sea quakes by now, and that doesn't seem to have happened.
I'd be more worried about Siberian clathrates than I would be about a methane explosion in the GOM.
I have seen articles about and posts from the Jefferson referenced, only to be unable to find anything in a search. This included references to a significant leak somewhere about 20 miles south of the Deepwater Horizon site. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
Oceanographer John Kessler analyzes methane levels from oil spill site
John Kessler, a chemical oceanographer in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, is currently analyzing methane levels in water collected from seven miles to 500 meters from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. Preliminary results, he says, point to high concentrations of the gas. "Methane levels ranged from 10,000 to nearly 1 million times higher in some spots than normal concentration," Kessler said. The 10-day cruise, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Response grant, returned June 21 with nearly 1 million data points gathered. Since that time, he and his colleagues have been analyzing the results in the shore-based lab at Texas A&M.
John Kessler, a chemical oceanographer in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, is currently analyzing methane levels in water collected from seven miles to 500 meters from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
Preliminary results, he says, point to high concentrations of the gas. "Methane levels ranged from 10,000 to nearly 1 million times higher in some spots than normal concentration," Kessler said.
The 10-day cruise, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Rapid Response grant, returned June 21 with nearly 1 million data points gathered. Since that time, he and his colleagues have been analyzing the results in the shore-based lab at Texas A&M.
why, are they a million times normal too?
thanks for easing my concerns, :( ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
TBG implies that the amount of methane trapped in the Siberian permafrost easily exceeds that in the Gulf of Mexico, and I think I agree (based on no data :-) with his impression. By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
They seem to be geysering away quite nicely.
