The Mystery of Methane Hydrate

In this short documentary film, follow scientists as they embark on a mission to take core samples of methane hydrate, a mysterious form of frozen gas and one of the largest caches of carbon in the world.
The film includes interviews with the mission's chief scientist Peter Flemings and others from the U.S. Geological Survey, The Ohio State University, the University of Washington, Oregon State University and the University of New Hampshire as they prepare for the mission and head offshore to conduct science at sea.
Globally, methane hydrate is one of the largest caches of carbon in the world, holding up to 10 times as much carbon as the atmosphere. The substance is energy rich and a potent greenhouse gas. The cores recovered during this mission can help answer important questions about how methane hydrate works at a fundamental level and the effects it could have on the energy landscape, climate and environment.
A special thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy for supporting the mission.
More on the methane hydrate mission: www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2023/...

[@KevinWPruitt]

Beautiful video, and incredibly informative. Congrats!!!!

[@e-care-books9867]

Thanks, science bros.

[@pierreproudhon9008]

once they get into the water column methanotrophs will eat them up. fast.

[@martiansoon9092]

There is a new study that says the continental self and where the abyss starts acts like a lid that may direct methane hydrates from deep ocean to shallow ocean allowing the methane to release to the atmosphere. It has been believed that deep methane releases are taken by the bacteria and diluted to the water before it can be release to the atmosphere. But now, there is at least this one mechanism that allows methane hydrates to release their contents to the atmosphere. Also noting that using methane as a burning gas, releases CO2 when burned purely which is not often the case. And there are plenty of leaks in the system that allows methane be released as itself to the atmosphere. All of these makes methane or "natural" gas almost as bad greenhouse emitter as coal is. So don't use it. Don't try to fool people with only revealing tiny fraction of true emissions. Please. In larger scale. We have to stop burning all fossil fuels as soon as possible. They make most of the emissions. Without phasing out, we end over 3C world.

[@LarryCleveland]

But really it's too late to stop the warming. It's here now and this technology will as you say make it worse. Likely we will reach 3 c above preindustrial age by end of the century. Using the original 1750 baseline, we are past 1.5 c heading to 2c by 2030 to 2050 for sure.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

does this talk even MENTION ESAS?

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

read Natalia Shakhova papers for details on ESAS. Otherwise this is a joke! ESAS is the biggest ocean shelf on Earth - 1200 gigatons of pressurized Methane Hydrate that can release. 50 gigatons at ANY time can double atmosphere temperature. Abrupt eruption considered probable based on PNAS 2021 Julia Steinbach published research.

[@martiansoon9092]

@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 ESAS is even worse. The whole area is shallow enough to emit huge amounts of methane without anything else than thawing... But currently Russia is not very supportive on giving information on its research... Shakhalova did report multiple kilometre scale bubbling seeps some years ago...

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@martiansoon9092 Does this video mention ESAS otherwise why waste our time. Shakhova has a NEW paper that she co-authors - an new isotope technique documenting the methane accelerating out of ESAS.

[@LarryCleveland]

Completely the wrong direction. Humans are toast.