Some Obscurish facts
#1566
The most abundant source of hydrocarbon fuel on earth is a frozen form of methane found in the deep, cold water of the world's oceans, and under the vast tundra plains of the far north. Methane hydrate is a crystal structure of methane gas surrounded by water molecules, held together by freezing temperature and crushing pressure. Separating the two yields the methane, or common natural gas. Knowledge of the substance dates to the 1890s. But it never caught on as an energy source because it is found in hard-to-access Arctic permafrost and deep ocean sediments. Worldwide resources are massive: an estimated 25,000 trillion cubic meters (a third of the total is found in the waters of the USA) (875,000 trillion cubic feet), according to current estimates. That contains about twice the energy as the Earth's coal, oil, and gas resources combined. There are many difficulties in mining it, however, and since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, if it is ever used as a major energy source, any presently concievable extraction methods, and the occasional large-scale release of large amounts of methane would REALLY turn up the heat on the global warming scene!!
The most abundant source of hydrocarbon fuel on earth is a frozen form of methane found in the deep, cold water of the world's oceans, and under the vast tundra plains of the far north. Methane hydrate is a crystal structure of methane gas surrounded by water molecules, held together by freezing temperature and crushing pressure. Separating the two yields the methane, or common natural gas. Knowledge of the substance dates to the 1890s. But it never caught on as an energy source because it is found in hard-to-access Arctic permafrost and deep ocean sediments. Worldwide resources are massive: an estimated 25,000 trillion cubic meters (a third of the total is found in the waters of the USA) (875,000 trillion cubic feet), according to current estimates. That contains about twice the energy as the Earth's coal, oil, and gas resources combined. There are many difficulties in mining it, however, and since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, if it is ever used as a major energy source, any presently concievable extraction methods, and the occasional large-scale release of large amounts of methane would REALLY turn up the heat on the global warming scene!!