In a message dated 9/1/03 8:45:35 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Explosions of methane gas erupting from beneath the ocean floor with a > force > 10,000 times more powerful than the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons > could explain the mass extinction of more than 70 percent of life that > occurred on Earth 250 million years ago. I have trouble with this hypothesis. Some time back I realized that the quantity of fossil fuel on this planet (based on known reserve calculations) represented only a minor fraction of the amount of anarobic decomposition (e.g. -- fermentation) that occurred per year. My calculations suggested that, if all the biomass were conserved, the amount of fossil fuel known to exist could be duplicated in only 70 years. That is when I seriously started thinking biofuel. But I digress. The point is that methane tied up as an ice-hydrate at the sea bottom would have to very rapidly well up to the surface, then disperse into the air before an explosive mixture would be created. Further, to cause a really big explosion, the methane would have to well up from a number of difuse points. Just one location -- even like a volcanic eruption -- just won't do it because combustion would occur first at the fringes of a methane column. This would tend to push gas in the center of the column upward. As that gas came in contact with oxygen, it would ignite and burn. Most of the heated combustion products would rise due to thermal expansion. That leaves a lot less energy than would otherwise be expected to be released laterally as an explosion. Remember, for example, liquid gasoline does not burn. It is the vapor that ignites and only when there is sufficient oxygen to support combusion. Consequently, I just don't see methane explosions as a concern unless we have extraordinary instances of simultaneous and large volcanism. And if that happens, boys and girls, ignition of methane from the deep is likely to be the least of our worries! -- Jay [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
