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Methane clathrate (CH 4 ·5.75H 2 O) or (4CH 4 ·23H 2 O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice.
Layers of methane gas sit trapped below permafrost in Arctic regions, but if they’re released, it could spell trouble for the rest of the world. A Sea of Methane Is Quietly Waiting to Wreak ...
Methane clathrate block embedded in the sediment of hydrate ridge, off Oregon, USA. Clathrate hydrates, or gas hydrates, clathrates, or hydrates, are crystalline water-based solids physically resembling ice, in which small non-polar molecules (typically gases) or polar molecules with large hydrophobic moieties are trapped inside "cages" of hydrogen bonded, frozen water molecules.
In the Arctic, the main human-influenced sources of methane are thawing permafrost, Arctic sea ice melting, clathrate breakdown and Greenland ice sheet melting. This methane release results in a positive climate change feedback (meaning one that amplifies warming), as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. [3]
In June 2017, scientists from the Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate (CAGE), Environment and Climate at the University of Tromsø, published a study describing over a hundred ocean sediment craters, some 300 meters wide and up to 30 meters deep, formed due to explosive eruptions, attributed to destabilizing methane hydrates, following ice-sheet ...
Trapped methane causes frozen bubbles to form under the ice on the lake's surface. This phenomenon results when decaying plants on the lake bed release methane gas, which creates bubbles that become trapped within the ice, in suspended animation, just below the surface as the lake begins to freeze. The visual effects formed by the resulting ...
Frozen methane bubbles from thawing permafrost. Large deposits of frozen methane, when thawing, release gas into the environment. [3] In cases of sub-sea permafrost, the methane gas may be dissolved in the seawater before reaching the surface; however, in a number of sites around the world, these methane chimneys release the gas directly into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. [4]
Oxygen likely oxidized atmospheric methane (a strong greenhouse gas) to carbon dioxide (a weaker one) and water. This weakened the greenhouse effect of the Earth's atmosphere, causing planetary cooling, which has been proposed to have triggered a series of ice ages known as the Huronian glaciation , bracketing an age range of 2.45–2.22 Ga ...