This Methane Seep is just the tip of the iceberg. The methane levels in the gulf are more than 1 million times higher than normal in some regions and the well is sitting on an enormous methane reserve miles and miles in scope with many wells drilled in it. http://vimeo.com/12464169
If i lived in the states bordering the Gulf I definitely would have sold everything and moved west by now. What at first sounded like science fiction is slowly becoming a horrific nightmare.
Trying not to sound like Woody Harrelson in 2012 here but Big Oil is playing God with all our lives to make a buck.
Read this digg article and pass it on and help educate people to this madness:
Massive Methane Release in the Gulf of Mexico is Possible
"Water and sand along Alabama's coast should contain no more than five parts per million of oil or petroleum, according to Bob Naman, an analytical chemist. But, the samples we collected tested much higher.
From 16 ppm to 221 ppm, our results are concerning. Even more disturbing is what happened to a sample collected from the Dauphin Island Marina near oil containment boom."
Clathrates are composites in which a lattice of one substance forms a cage round another. Methane clathrates (in which water molecules are the cage) form on continental shelves. These clathrates are likely to break up rapidly and release the methane if the temperature rises quickly or the pressure on them drops quickly — for example in response to sudden global warming or a sudden drop in sea level or even earthquakes.
Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so a methane eruption ("clathrate gun") could cause rapid global warming or make it much more severe if the eruption was itself caused by global warming.
The most likely signature of such a methane eruption would be a sudden decrease in the ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in sediments, since methane clathrates are low in carbon-13; but the change would have to be very large, as other events can also reduce the percentage of carbon-13.[43]
What sounded like science fiction to me back in April 2010 has moved closer to reality from a variety of sources I've studied, many of them conservative in nature.
It gives one pause that other minds in the know, know something we don't know... you know?
*gulp*
I'm sad to say I think there is potential for a massive seafloor collapse in the Gulf of Mexico (Can't even believe I'm typing that) but basic logic predicts poke enough holes in a dam and you get the whole works.
Is this all going to lead to a solution more or less drastic than this?
Time to deeply examine this run-away industry once and for all.
This disaster is just the beginning and it might be the end if we don't muzzle the mad dogs at the hands of their Heartless Corporate Master(s)... Big Oil.
A master which sees only profit and bottom-lines and will stop at nothing to get there even if that foolishly brings upon itself it's own destruction.
This is more than tar balls, oil covered birds and PR campaigns.
I submitted this oil spill article you've just read on digg. Please help the people, the sea-life and the earth by digging the article linked below and getting the word out. - Thanks for caring!
I submitted this article at digg. Please digg it to get the word out: all these wells need inspections paid for by the companies that drilled them. Time to make these companies ripe with profits take responsibility.