DMac
18th June 2010, 10:01 AM
We are only just beginning to understand asphalt volcanoes.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/undersea-asphalt-volanoes-100416.html
Rather than lava, these volcanoes likely spit out petroleum and natural gas, which is made mostly of methane (a greenhouse gas). And now scientists have images of the volcanoes, showing the seafloor topography.
__________________________________________________ _____
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/209266-Asphalt-volcanoes-discovered-in-Gulf-of-Mexcio
Underwater volcanoes that spew asphalt instead of lava: they were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico during an expedition of the research vessel Sonne, led by Prof. Gerhard Bohrmann of the DFG Research Center Ocean Margins. On these volcanoes the multinational team of scientists encountered a previously unknown highly diverse ecosystem at a water depth of 3,000 meters. The prominent scientific journal Science reports the spectacular discovery in its issue of 14 May 2004.
_______________________________________________
http://news.discovery.com/earth/oil-spill-methane-hydrates.html
Methane hydrates only exist 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the seafloor, Johnson said. The BP drill went down to 18,000 feet.
And if hydrates are warmed by oil moving through pipes, they can turn into methane gas (known as "kicks" to drillers) that can shoot back up the drilling pipe and ignite the rig. Investigators are already focused on that scenario as a possible cause of the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.
Several marine geologists told Discovery News that the location of methane hydrate fields are well-mapped by petroleum companies and the Minerals Management Service, which regulates the industry. Researchers aboard scientific drilling ships say they avoid methane hydrate fields because of the inherent risks.
In 2003, Unocal abandoned plans to drill in the deep water off Indonesia for the same reason. China has delayed plans for offshore oil development after finding large hydrate fields, but many industry officials say they can engineer proper safeguards.
_________________________________________________
http://news.discovery.com/earth/asphalt-volcanoes-oil-spill.html
The asphalt volcanoes are found beside large pits thought to be the dregs of large, sudden methane releases. These rapid emissions are thought to be responsible for huge die-offs of marine life in the area, as well as possibly contributing to past global climate changes, given that methane is a potent greenhouse gas.
"I can see that this mechanism related to asphalt volcanism -- seepage of heavy oil -- may account for punctuated events of methane release in the history of the basin," observed Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, professor of organic geochemistry at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Hinrichs' research has focused on sudden eruptions of methane from the sea floor. The pits beside the asphalt volcanoes also pencil out an amount of methane in the same ballpark of what Hinrichs estimated came out of the sea floor during an event 44,000 years ago, he said.
As for how something like oil can build up as asphalt on the ocean floor, that's something researchers think they might have worked out.
__________________________________________________ __
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116785
The researchers also determined that the volcanoes were at one time a prolific source of methane, a greenhouse gas.
The two largest volcanoes are about a kilometer apart and have pits or depressions surrounding them. These pits, according to Valentine, are signs of "methane gas bubbling from the sub-surface."
That's not surprising, he says, considering how much petroleum was flowing there in the past.
"They were spewing out a lot of petroleum, but also lots of natural gas," he says, "which you tend to get when you have petroleum seepage in this area."
The discovery that vast amounts of methane once emanated from the volcanoes caused the scientists to wonder if there might have been an environmental impact on the area during the Ice Age.
_________
Interestingly.....
Link to source (http://www.creative-i.info/2010/06/03/hurricane-season-the-oil-is-headed-up-the-east-coast/)
Extreme Crusextraction
The Macondo oil prospect is an immense deep-Earth oil and gas reserve located below the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is named after the cursed town in Gabriel Marquez’s book “One Hundred Years of Solitude.†Since it’s discovery, geologists knew it would take advanced drilling techniques to successfully access the reserve, – it would not be a conventional offshore effort. The contents of Macondo are also not particularly high quality, it is full of methane, natural gases, sulfur, and tarry oil. The current gushing wellhead is essentially an asphalt volcano. As you can see on the beach, or through what images are in the news, it is a rusty, reddish crude which gives off the stink of sulphur.
Due to the composition of the mass, and the difficult geology surrounding it in the undersea Mississippi Canyon, the method chosen to access the slurry of crude was (and is) highly controversial, and illegal. What they did was drill below 35,000 feet at a slight angle, and then pump-in hyper-pressurized chemicals in order to fracture open the Earth. Their method, “deep angular frac drilling,†was one cause of the first Gulf War, as Kuwaiti and western oil corporations (like BP) attempted to drill underneath Iraq’s borders in order to rob their oil.
BP and their contractors were operating in secret when they pushed into the dangerous pressurized mass. Even in our lax regulatory culture, their plan would not have been allowed.
Oil trade journals, and whistleblowers with the Army Corps of Engineers, have suggested that BP caused a much larger disaster in the months before Deep Horizon entered the news.
Submarines with the National Undersea Laboratory and the US Navy have apparently been tracking an immense lake of oil (the size of Louisiana) that is expanding at 3,500 feet below the surface. This may have been caused by the initial “frac†drilling effort.
_____________________
And going off the deep end:
(Ray) Mabus oversees both U.S. Navy and Gulf restoration (http://news.muckety.com/2010/06/18/mabus-oversees-both-us-navy-and-gulf-restoration/26701)
*ehem* So Nostradamus predicted "Mabus" (who dies from this event he unleashes) ushers in great chaos, death and destruction, which destabilizes the world.
(Imagine if Mabus makes the call to nuke the volcano and it doesn't close the well but causes a great calamity? I might need to stock up adult diapers... :o )
Let's hope that stays within the confines of the lunatic fringe ;)
http://www.livescience.com/environment/undersea-asphalt-volanoes-100416.html
Rather than lava, these volcanoes likely spit out petroleum and natural gas, which is made mostly of methane (a greenhouse gas). And now scientists have images of the volcanoes, showing the seafloor topography.
__________________________________________________ _____
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/209266-Asphalt-volcanoes-discovered-in-Gulf-of-Mexcio
Underwater volcanoes that spew asphalt instead of lava: they were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico during an expedition of the research vessel Sonne, led by Prof. Gerhard Bohrmann of the DFG Research Center Ocean Margins. On these volcanoes the multinational team of scientists encountered a previously unknown highly diverse ecosystem at a water depth of 3,000 meters. The prominent scientific journal Science reports the spectacular discovery in its issue of 14 May 2004.
_______________________________________________
http://news.discovery.com/earth/oil-spill-methane-hydrates.html
Methane hydrates only exist 3,000 to 5,000 feet below the seafloor, Johnson said. The BP drill went down to 18,000 feet.
And if hydrates are warmed by oil moving through pipes, they can turn into methane gas (known as "kicks" to drillers) that can shoot back up the drilling pipe and ignite the rig. Investigators are already focused on that scenario as a possible cause of the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.
Several marine geologists told Discovery News that the location of methane hydrate fields are well-mapped by petroleum companies and the Minerals Management Service, which regulates the industry. Researchers aboard scientific drilling ships say they avoid methane hydrate fields because of the inherent risks.
In 2003, Unocal abandoned plans to drill in the deep water off Indonesia for the same reason. China has delayed plans for offshore oil development after finding large hydrate fields, but many industry officials say they can engineer proper safeguards.
_________________________________________________
http://news.discovery.com/earth/asphalt-volcanoes-oil-spill.html
The asphalt volcanoes are found beside large pits thought to be the dregs of large, sudden methane releases. These rapid emissions are thought to be responsible for huge die-offs of marine life in the area, as well as possibly contributing to past global climate changes, given that methane is a potent greenhouse gas.
"I can see that this mechanism related to asphalt volcanism -- seepage of heavy oil -- may account for punctuated events of methane release in the history of the basin," observed Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, professor of organic geochemistry at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Hinrichs' research has focused on sudden eruptions of methane from the sea floor. The pits beside the asphalt volcanoes also pencil out an amount of methane in the same ballpark of what Hinrichs estimated came out of the sea floor during an event 44,000 years ago, he said.
As for how something like oil can build up as asphalt on the ocean floor, that's something researchers think they might have worked out.
__________________________________________________ __
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116785
The researchers also determined that the volcanoes were at one time a prolific source of methane, a greenhouse gas.
The two largest volcanoes are about a kilometer apart and have pits or depressions surrounding them. These pits, according to Valentine, are signs of "methane gas bubbling from the sub-surface."
That's not surprising, he says, considering how much petroleum was flowing there in the past.
"They were spewing out a lot of petroleum, but also lots of natural gas," he says, "which you tend to get when you have petroleum seepage in this area."
The discovery that vast amounts of methane once emanated from the volcanoes caused the scientists to wonder if there might have been an environmental impact on the area during the Ice Age.
_________
Interestingly.....
Link to source (http://www.creative-i.info/2010/06/03/hurricane-season-the-oil-is-headed-up-the-east-coast/)
Extreme Crusextraction
The Macondo oil prospect is an immense deep-Earth oil and gas reserve located below the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is named after the cursed town in Gabriel Marquez’s book “One Hundred Years of Solitude.†Since it’s discovery, geologists knew it would take advanced drilling techniques to successfully access the reserve, – it would not be a conventional offshore effort. The contents of Macondo are also not particularly high quality, it is full of methane, natural gases, sulfur, and tarry oil. The current gushing wellhead is essentially an asphalt volcano. As you can see on the beach, or through what images are in the news, it is a rusty, reddish crude which gives off the stink of sulphur.
Due to the composition of the mass, and the difficult geology surrounding it in the undersea Mississippi Canyon, the method chosen to access the slurry of crude was (and is) highly controversial, and illegal. What they did was drill below 35,000 feet at a slight angle, and then pump-in hyper-pressurized chemicals in order to fracture open the Earth. Their method, “deep angular frac drilling,†was one cause of the first Gulf War, as Kuwaiti and western oil corporations (like BP) attempted to drill underneath Iraq’s borders in order to rob their oil.
BP and their contractors were operating in secret when they pushed into the dangerous pressurized mass. Even in our lax regulatory culture, their plan would not have been allowed.
Oil trade journals, and whistleblowers with the Army Corps of Engineers, have suggested that BP caused a much larger disaster in the months before Deep Horizon entered the news.
Submarines with the National Undersea Laboratory and the US Navy have apparently been tracking an immense lake of oil (the size of Louisiana) that is expanding at 3,500 feet below the surface. This may have been caused by the initial “frac†drilling effort.
_____________________
And going off the deep end:
(Ray) Mabus oversees both U.S. Navy and Gulf restoration (http://news.muckety.com/2010/06/18/mabus-oversees-both-us-navy-and-gulf-restoration/26701)
*ehem* So Nostradamus predicted "Mabus" (who dies from this event he unleashes) ushers in great chaos, death and destruction, which destabilizes the world.
(Imagine if Mabus makes the call to nuke the volcano and it doesn't close the well but causes a great calamity? I might need to stock up adult diapers... :o )
Let's hope that stays within the confines of the lunatic fringe ;)