Methyl hydrate should have been methane hydrate

[Jim Jordan]

Hi,
 
No one said it would be easy or free.  
 
In fact, methane hydrate comes with attendant problems just like all
alternatives, but the choice is ours:  solve the problems or walk, freeze,
lower our standard of living.  However, MH has 2 major things going for it,
provided we can overcome the obstacles, there's lots of it and it does show
signs of regenerating itself.  The maligned description of the experiment
that put 10E5 psi on the material between the 2 diamonds showed the
potential that it can regenerate itself within the magma at the core of the
earth.  THAT IS NOT TO IMPLY THAT HUMANS OUGHT TO REGENERATE IT BY APPLYING
VERY HIGH PRESSURE;  THE EXPERIMENT WAS TO SHOW THAT THE EARTH ITSELF
REGENERATES MH WITH NO HELP FROM HUMANS.
 
MH is said to contribute heavily to global warming(if it exists) and the
region under the Atlantic off the US East Coast is said to contain rich
stores of MH.  The Bermuda Triangle is near it.  As a former Naval Aviator I
have heard the stories about the Bermuda Triangle for many years, read about
it, saw it in movies, on TV, and on and on.  IMHO the story has taken on a
life of its own and it's hard for me to separate fact from fiction about it.
Maybe it's the center of the pivot for when the earth switches magnetic
poles.  I hadn't heard the MH connection to the Bermuda Triangle.  But in
the days when the Bermuda Triangle was gaining its notoriety, there were
precious few tools to locate and track planes, dead reckoning, magnetic
compass, radio compass(sometimes);  there was no gps, dme, vor, radar(very
little), satellites.  Lots of planes were lost never to be heard from again
e..g. Amelia Earhart.
 
We must find alternative fuels as well as increasing nuclear power
generation to exceed 40% of our power generation needs.  The long term
effects on our economy are too severe not to do so.
 
Further research on this issue will be on your own time.
 
Cheers!
 
JIm Jordan


   _____  

From: LL - NY [mailto:larrycleung at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 6:12 PM
To: Robert Myers
Cc: Brett Dikeman; Jim Jordan; Quattro List
Subject: Re: Methyl hydrate should have been methane hydrate


As the resident Geo contributor, one thing about Methane Hydrate
is the difficulty of actually "mining" it. 
 
Awfully hard to bring it up in conditions that won't cause it to go
from solid to gas in an instant. In fact, some theories of Missing
ships in the Bermuda Triangle consider decompressed gas bubbles
of Methane Hydrate essentially swallowing ships (not really, but
you can visualize it). 
 
Such decompressions are actually threatening the North Carolina
coast off the Outer Banks with a potential Tsunami if the deep 
sea temps rise to a level to cause the spontaneous change of 
phase of the methane hydrate deposits discovered there. The 
resultant landslide could trigger a respectable wave right towards
the Carolina coast. A pretty good reason to carefully consider 
global warming. 
 
Anyway, I do know of funded specific research being carried out 
by Lamont-Daughety Earth Observatory of Columbia University to
see of the feasibility of mining such a resource. As a fuel, most of 
the LDEO scientists currently doubt that the fuel could be used/stored in
the hydrate form, too difficult, too expensive and to explosive if 
something fails. So, it's simply a source or methane. As for the 
regeneration, I think Bob covered that. In any event, it sounds like it
may be possibleas a source, but it's YEARS away, so don't expect any 
methane powered Audis (mAC) in the near future. 
 
LL - NY

 
On 8/6/05, Robert Myers <HYPERLINK
"mailto:Bob at chips-ur-s.com"Bob at chips-ur-s.com> wrote: 


Actually, I looked it up.  It was Robert Heinlein.

At 07:44 PM 8/6/2005, Brett Dikeman wrote:

>>As Isaac Asimov (or was it Ray Bradbury?) once said, "TANSTAAFL".
>>There
>>ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
>
>Neither- economist Milton Friedman, I think.


Bob
HYPERLINK "Http://Chips-Ur-S.com"Http://Chips-Ur-S.com
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