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NOAA
Two different perspectives of the seeps, made by bouncing sound waves off rising plumes of gas.
By Douglas Main
Our Amazing Planet
A research cruise has discovered 40 previously unknown gas seeps on the seafloor off the U.S. East Coast. The plumes of gas are almost certainly methane, also known as natural gas, according to government scientists.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas due to its ability to absorb heat, but the released gas is not likely to reach the ocean surface in significant quantities and affect the climate, said Carolyn Ruppel, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, which collaborated in the research. Neither is the amount of gas likely to warrant commercial interest, she said.
The seeps were found in four clusters, three of them about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Nantucket, Mass. The other cluster, consisting of 17 of the seeps, was mapped about 90 miles (147 kilometers) east of Cape Henry, Va., according to a release from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which led the expedition.
Methane seeps are important to find and study since they involve the transfer of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere, which is important for getting an accurate picture of climate change in terms of how much gas is emitted naturally and how much is emitted by humans, Ruppel told OurAmazingPlanet. Methane also can oxidize in water and contribute to ocean acidification, she said. [ Video: Humans Hit the Oceans Hard ]
The NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer mapped the locations between Nov. 2 and Nov. 20 using multibeam sonar, which produces detailed images of the seafloor by calculating the amount of time and distance it takes for sound waves to travel from the ship to the seafloor and back. During that time the ship and its instruments mapped 5,970 square miles (15,460 square kilometers) of seafloor, an area larger than Connecticut, according to the NOAA release. The mapping was primarily done along the continental slope, where the North American continent ends and drops into the Atlantic Ocean basin. Sound waves were also used to visualize the rising plumes of gas.
It's unclear exactly where the gas is coming from, Ruppel said. Methane either can arise from microbial activity in shallow deposits of organic material, or it can come from more deep-seated processes involving oil formation. Probably both processes are at work in these different seeps, she said.
A mere generation ago, methane seeps were virtually unheard of off the East Coast. Since the early 1980s, however, several seeps have been found. "With advanced multibeam sonar, it may become routine to discover seeps while we systematically explore our poorly known ocean," NOAA scientist Stephen Hammond said in the statement.
Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
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Contrary to this news article, methane gas seeping from ocean floor is not new science. Geology had predicted and confirmed the presence of crude oil under the continental shelves for at least seven decades. Early offshore oil drilling and exploration had encountered huge quantity of methane gas within the crude oil reservoir as well as a layer of frozen methane in deep ocean water. The public became familiar with the frozen methane during the BP's oil spill in the deep waters of Gulf of Mexico two years ago when under water video showed the frozen methane recrystallized and interferred with repair machinery.
For nearly five decades, special interest groups lobbied for regulations that set permissible limits on green house gases and punish those who exceed them. Their arguments are based primarily on recent historical recorded temperature differentials and lower atmospheric CO2 concentration in Anarctica ice borings that radioactive clock dated them at no more than 1 million years old. These special interest groups then concluded that 'global warming' is a man-made product of fossil fuel utilization, and hence, clean air regulations are required. When the age of the earth is measured in tens of billions of years, the Theory of Global Warming is speculation at best, and economic interest of special interest groups at worse.
After Nixon breached the Bretton Wood Agreement by removing the dollar off the gold standard, the oil producers resisted payment in dollars by imposing the Oil Embargo of 1973. Special interest and commodity speculators seized the opportunity, transformed a mundane trade dispute into an apocalpse World Energy Crisis where the world's oil reserves will be depleted within 30 years. Soon, Spin Doctors from Madison Avenue began to indocrinate people that oil is a limited resource as it is a product of dead plants and dinosaurs deposited millions of year ago. No one with stocks or vested interest in energy companies or the indirect beneficiaries would reveal the truth as in 'Let the cat out of the bag,' that the entire earth is a carbon-based planet, where the geo-process of oxidation and reduction of carbon is a continuous closed cycle that produces CO2 and various hydrocarbons, respectively, using the sun's energy. When trillions of dollars of revenue and taxes are at stake, truth is relegated to a back page of history.
Since the days of the Pharoah, the tax collectors had sought ways to fill the treasury of the kingdom. Taxing land was first because it was the easiest. Land has a physical tangible existence; visually ascertainable as it cannot be hidden or transported away, and measurable even by crude Egyptian instruments. As productive land was scarce and expensive, the property tax receipt has limits that constrained the Pharoah's ability to wage war and to indulge his extravagance. Consequently, he instructed his Scribes to find additional source of revenue.
As water and air are the next two resources required for sustaining life, they were the naturally candidates for Pharoah's tax collectors. Until the advent of modern plumbing and high speed volumetric water meters, taxing water was next to impossible, frustrating the tax collectors. Their angst was to be short lived. As industrialization and urbanization became depended on a complex water distribution system, the tax collectors were vindicated as well as the state treasury.
But the Holy Grail has always been finding ways to tax air. Despite thousands of year of prayers from the Scribes, tax collectors and even the Pharoah himself, their salvation escaped them. But in the late 20th Century, a new Messiah, named the Environmentalist, was born unto them. With an extraordinary foresight the Three Wisemen, the Taxman, the Oilman, and the Oil Flipper, came bearing gifts.
In blessing the Oilman, He said, " I shall smitten the competition; increase government regulations; limit the supply of drilling rigs; and intervene between you and the unbelievers."
To the Oil Flipper, He whispered, " I shall pray for Nigerian oil rebels; start oil refinery fires; play the China-India card; global oil shortages; and high crude prices.
But what about me, Oh Lord? asked the Taxman. Verily, I say unto you of little faith, observe the Oilman in the fields and the Oil Flipper frolic in the air......I shall you give an ephiphany: If you cannot tax air, tax the pollution in the air; sell license to pollute the air; and collect the enormous taxes from cap-and-trade.
Upon hearing the good news, the Taxman broke in tears, fell upon his knees and kissed the feet of his Savior. For the taxman, the Holy Trilogy is now completed: taxes on land, water, and air.
And so, the Three Wisemen were saved and lived happly-ever-after, having been blessed by their Savior, the Environmentist.
Funny post! Pollution is still a problem, though, and even Pharoah, the Taxman, and the Three Wise Men can't fool Mother Nature.
You're pretending to be knowledgeable, but grammar problems raised questions. . . and then I saw the reference to the Earth's age being "tends of billions" years old. Um, no. Universe is currently calculated to be a bit over 12 billion years, the Earth 4-something billion. So, you are just pretending.
now the largest producers of methane is livestock-- that's right you and me included. the "warmers" have admitted that the earth has natural cycles. the dispute is what is happening now --is it man caused or just a normal fluctuation ? with us not having collected data enough--long enough we are just now learning to read the book of nature. we don't know what happened the last time the earth warmed us out of the iceage. we do know it wasn't man's industry--he had none. with the "greeners" incesant push for legislation that will cost trillions , why do more if there is no conclusive proof. i think that the removing of particulates of manmade origin is fine. but when you seek to call co2 and methane, naturally occurring substances, as"green house gases" you are calling for the death or diminishment of all animals because that's the only way you can do it. this is most contrary to the alleged "reasons" given as to why the "warmers" want to do what they are---the preservation of man.
There is approx 500+year supply of methane hydrates located in just the US Continental Shelf...
Now they just have to develop a SAFE Commercial method to remove these deposits:
1. The Japan with the US, has been developing methods for decades in Alaska's North Slope area. Last year they announced success, with one method that BP used...
2. Russia's explorations have not been so successful. During 1971 they drilled into a cavern filled with NG, losing the drilling crew and blowing a gaping hole in the earth. The resulting fires are still burning and expect to continue for decades...
3. In Indonesia there has been a 'Mud Volcano' that was triggered by drilling into methane hydrates, 2006. It has covered hundreds of acres with mud, 100' feet deep and is expected to continue for decades if not centuries...
4. There are crevasses in the Atlantic Ocean floor between Greenland and Iceland, that are miles deep. Scientist had speculated they were created when methane hydrates interacted with volcanic lava, resulting in massive explosions...
5. For the more adventurous explanations - Flight 19 - The USN lost 5 TBM Avenger aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle. There were people that speculated that massive methane leaks caused the piston engines of the aircraft to stop working. Also the bubbling-up methane in sea water can cause a large ship to sink...
There is a reason the US East Coast has not seen the drilling rigs. Most responsible drilling companies will not drill in areas that contain known methane hydrates...
I've heard of the methane theory of the triangle disappearances .. I wonder if the methane in the air also inerfered or stopped sos radio transmittions as well.? It stands to reason..
AC Robertson-2414093 -- Interesting post! (# 2) SAFE is the operative word, and with how many companies like to take shortcuts these days, that word SAFE depends not only on discovered and proven methods, but also on WILLINGNESS to abide by safety regulations, from the top CEO right down to the driller and his crew. I know people who have worked in the oilfields. I know that crews get pressured into things like not reporting near misses, not turning off power to parts of the rig when called for (I can't remember what they called it). Anyway, the one element that is the most variable is the human element.
These gas seeps are not nearly as dangerous as the stupidity seeps that regularly leak into the comment sections at nbcnews.com....
They say in the article a generation ago methane seeps were virtually unheard of off the East coast, and then they go on to say that as technology improves MORE methane seeps will be found in our virtually unmaped ocean..Is it POSSIBLE...Just POSSIBLE that they were there to start with and we havent had the technology to find them until now????..The ocean anit your typical back yard pond you know..It does have some size to it.. GEEZ