Methane Release From the Gulf, How Bad Could it Get?

Tremendous quantities of methane are being emitted by the Gulf oil spill.

The methane could kill all life in large areas of the Gulf.

However, rumors being spread widely around the Web claiming that the methane could bring on a doomsday catastrophe are not credible.

This essay will attempt to clear up the confusion and convey the facts regarding methane and the oil spill. ...

But most people don't know that the government has actively encouraged drilling for methane in the Gulf of Mexico as well.

For example, Congress passed the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000 "to promote the research, identification, assessment, exploration, and development of methane hydrate resources...."

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 also providedgovernment support for methane hydrate research, exploration and development - including in deep water.

The Department of Energy has actively encouraged deepwater drilling for methane hydrates. See this and this.

Indeed, this has specifically included support for deepwater drilling for methane in the Gulf of Mexico. See this, this, this, this, this,

In fact, the government, oil industry and academia have been exploring the high methane content in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico - where the spill is occurring - for years.

Unprecedented Release of Methane

As CBS notes:

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.As Kessler also points out:

This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history.
A U.S. scientist says that methane levels in the Gulf are "astonishingly high", that 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the oil spill, high enough to create "dead zones" devoid of life. Methane depletes oxygen, and the scientist noted:


At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. Another scientist writes:

Researchers studying the [plumes] have found concentrations of methane up to 10,000 times greater than normal and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent below normal.This unprecedented release of methane into the ocean kill all life within large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico. ...

There is speculation on the Web that the methane being released from the oil spill will cause a tsunami or a firestorm.

It is true that one scientist speculates that methane bubbles released from the seafloor have caused extinction-level events in the past.

But the odds that the release of methane from the leaking oil will cause a tidal wave or a firestorm are infinitesimally small.

There are many real things to worry about - such as the destruction of the Gulf ecosystem, and the threat to human health from toxic chemicals in the oil and dispersants.

Tidal waves and firestorms are not worth worrying about. And - unlike the destruction of the ecosystems and the threat to human health which we can do something about (by stopping the use of Corexit dispersant and using proven clean-up and containment methods) - there's nothing much we can do about such low-probability Armageddon scenarios. ...

washington's blog