# Any Truth To The Methane Death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498 "2010-07-13T04:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/1 "2010-07-13T04:26:51Z")
According to this article: [http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event](http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event) we’re possibly screwed. What I want to know is if there’s any veracity to this “methane bubble” theory. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/2 "2010-07-13T04:48:38Z")
Sorry, my search-fu fails me but Cecil did a column on this, IIRC. ETA: [Here ya go.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2719/are-there-deposits-of-methane-under-the-sea) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/3 "2010-07-13T04:49:41Z")
Gee, and I was hoping that it was [Nibiru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_collision) that was going to kill us all… ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/4 "2010-07-13T05:31:23Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What I want to know is if there’s any veracity to this “methane bubble” theory. Lots of innuendo but no detailed evidence to substantiate the author’s view. Unfortunately, [Time magazine has jumped on the hype](http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/12/doomsday-could-bp-spill-kill-all-life-on-earth/), quoting the Helium article. Then there’s this from today: > [@](#): > > While it’s true that there are methane bubbles (and methane ice) beneath the ocean floor, they are not about to erupt from Gulf and destroy all life on Earth. This morning I spoke with two Earth scientists, Dave Valentine of UC Santa Barbara and Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who study methane and oil seeps from the sea floor. Valentine has just been out to the Gulf to study the methane levels there, and told io9: “During our recent cruise to the Gulf we observed significantly elevated levels of methane at water depth greater than 2500 feet, in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. While the total quantity of methane and other hydrocarbons is enough to cause problems with the regional ecosystem, there is no plausible scenario by which this event alone will cause global-scale extinctions.” > So yes, there is a methane seep. No, it will not cause tidal waves or explode. [Methane bubble "doomsday" story debunked](http://io9.com/5585294/methane-bubble-doomsday-story-debunked) I can’t wait for The Onion to grab this story: > [@](#): > > **World’s Largest Fart Threatens Mass Extinction.** > > Subtitle: Politicians glee in private, finally knowing the Earth is a bigger ass then they are. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/5 "2010-07-13T05:35:31Z")
The Permian and Paleocene extinction events did occur. The Paleocene event is generally thought to have been due to methane; the causes of the Permian event are more controversial but methane is likely to have played some part there as well. The possible destabilization of undersea methane has been a concern of many scientists. I am, however, skeptical that an apocalyptic event could be triggered by a single well. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/6 "2010-07-13T14:00:24Z")
The _Helium_ article is basically a grossly irresponsible joke. It is filled with scientific howlers, such as the claim that the formation pressure at the Macondo reservoir is 100,000 “pounds psi”, whatever a “pound psi” is. If the author meant to say just psi, well, 100,000 is simply an impossible number for that depth, full stop. Another claim in the article is that thousands of square miles of the seafloor in the Gufl of Mexico has risen as much as thirty feet, presumably in the short period since the April 20th blowout. No verifiable sources seem to be listed for this claim, but even if there were, I’m curious why there seems to be [no evidence of the thousands of earthquakes](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/) that would surely result from such a rapid change of elevation. I guess the USGS is in on the coverup. As others have noted, there seems to be evidence that large-scale releases of trapped methane have occurred in the past, but there is nothing verifiable in the article that supports the notion that such a release is imminent, nor that there is any credible reason why the Macondo blowout would precipitate such an event. It is distressing that the some of the major media seem unable or unwilling to make a minimum effort to sort Internet bullshit from fact. Someone mentioned _Time_ picking up on this one, and a few weeks ago Keith Olbermann treated with complete seriousness an equally specious article found on the _Oil Drum_ site, that claimed the seabed around the blown-out well was in imminent danger of collapse, or some such thing. ---
**Author:** ![jrepka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee59a6/32.png) [@jrepka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jrepka)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/7 "2010-07-13T17:02:43Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > What I want to know is if there’s any veracity to this “methane bubble” theory. Short answer: No. [Long answer:](http://xkcd.com/748/) ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/8 "2010-07-13T17:40:48Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > an equally specious article found on the _Oil Drum_ site, that claimed the seabed around the blown-out well was in imminent danger of collapse, or some such thing. It is my understanding that it was a post made by a reader of the site, not an article put up by the site itself. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-truth-to-the-methane-death/546498/9 "2010-07-13T18:26:57Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > It is my understanding that it was a post made by a reader of the site, not an article put up by the site itself. Yep, you’re correct.