| Gregory Ryskin on "Did Methane Explosions Cause Mass Extinctions?" |
The cause of mass extinctions has long been a mystery, but now a new
hytpothesis could explain how they happen. Gregory Ryskin, associate
professor of chemical engineering at Northwestern University, believes
explosions of methane erupting from the ocean could be to blame, and
these eruptions start when methane accumulates in deep ocean regions
of stagnant water.
Ryskin: Then any kind of disturbance which will move
some parcel of water upward will cause this methane to exsolve, just
like carbon dioxide exsolves
when we open a bottle of champagne. Eventually this effect will reach
the surface of the ocean and methane will be expelled into the atmosphere.
It is almost inevitable that this will create mixtures which are explosive,
just like a gas leak in a kitchen.
Ryskin says methane eruptions could kill many species.
Ryskin: The terrestrial life would be destroyed by explosions
and conflagrations while the life in the ocean could be destroyed simply
by the fact that
the deep ocean waters, which have no oxygen, would rise to the surface
and this water is poisonous for the surface life.
According to Ryskin the phenomenon could have biblical connections.
Ryskin: When eruption occurs, I expect fountains of
the gas-water mixture to rise from the ocean. And the description in
the Genesis
chapter 7 fits this exactly. So that’s a rather amazing fact, which
suggests to me that this may be a reflection of some very old actual
observation perhaps seven or eight thousand years ago when the Black
Sea may have erupted.
According to Ryskin, eruptions could still be brewing today.
Ryskin: This mechanism has operated throughout the history of the earth and there
is no reason why it should have stopped by now. It is very likely that
somewhere in the ocean there is a region where methane is accumulating
and eventually this will happen. However, big eruptions apparently happen
pretty rarely on the order of every million years or so. We have some
time to prepare.
Ryskin believes methane eruptions should be taken seriously.
Ryskin: I think we should start looking for the place
in the ocean where such accumulation of methane may be happening because
even though I do
not expect this to happen too soon, on the other hand you never know
and it’s better to start early. By comparison with the possible
catastrophe from this kind of release, any kind of worries about global
warming would
look extremely insignificant.
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