Wobbly Planet Triggered Massive Methane Burps

Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council have found that three huge methane burps 180 million years ago triggered a catastrophic increase in global temperatures. The results are published in the current issue of Nature. This could provide clues about the global warming process we are experiencing today. The research suggest that a frozen mixture of water and methane melted (and was released) during one of the wobbles in the Earth’s orbit that bring our planet closer to the Sun.


This is quite interesting and if this research proves that the current global warming is actually caused by methan burps and not by man-made pollution, then we can blame Mother Nature instead and just keep on polluting like ever before ... Are we closer to the sun now? I believe that cows produce a quite significant amount of methan gas too. I could be wrong regarding the cows but if I´m not, could it trigger global warming? I mean, if methan gas could trigger "a catastrophic increase in global temperatures"...

Yeah some good points... Although it is something ive heard of before....

There are massive pockets of frozen methane in the oceans (methane freezes at a higher temp than water) and it only takes a slight increase in ocean temp to release all this.

It is obvious that this could be a natural cycle and that it has caused global warming and mass extinctions before... but...

We all know that the mass extinctions of the past where overcome and life continued (we no that cos we are here)

Now... imagine if the most famous of all the mass extinction periods (at the boundary of the cretaceous and tertiary periods 65 mil years ago) was caused by a massive methane burp that heated up the planet, melted ice caps and caused all sorts of problems!

Now imagine how much worse it would of been if we had added Tons of CO2, Carbon monoxide, Sulphur oxides, Nitrogen oxides, and ozone to the equation!

Imagine how much worse the situation would have been if there had been a species on the planet that destroyed forests the size of Great Britain each year!

Imagine how much worse it would have been if there was a species that dragged huge nets, up to 1/2 a kilometre long, along the ocean floor killing everything in its path, including plant life, and depleting fish stocks!

Imagine if the rivers and oceans where being pumped full of chemicals, heavy metals, hormones that effect the sex of fish etc...

Just because the planet is going through a cycle does not mean that we have no effect on the earth and can continue doing what we do!!!!

I think that this cycle has repeated itself over and over. Methane collects in the sediments at the bottom of the oceans over cooler periods and gets released again as the world warms.
This may be what has happened in the Bermuda Triangle. One large methane fart under a ship and it drops to the bottom. Or a low aircraft flies into a methane cloud and loses power.

This cycle could be starting now, as the oceans are heating up, thus increasing global warming which would lead to larger releases in the future as the temperature warms waters at deeper levels. This could be a runaway train that we have no way of bringing under control.

undercoverchef says... Now... imagine if the most famous of all the mass extinction periods (at the boundary of the cretaceous and tertiary periods 65 mil years ago) was caused by a massive methane burp that heated up the planet, melted ice caps and caused all sorts of problems!

The end of the cretaceous was a bad time for the dinosaurs and I think a combination of events became too much for them.
The Deccan Traps were formed around the same time as the Chicxulub impact which defined the K-T boundary.
I'm sure the gasses released during the formation of the Deccan Traps were changing the atmosphere of the entire globe over a very long period and the oceans may have released massive amounts of methane at the same time.

The impact at Chicxulub would have also released carbon into the air as fires burned away plants, bogs and coal that had sequestered it.

The planet has been through so much in the past without the influence of man, but I think we should be taking responsibility for what we can control, and learning as much as we can about what we have no control over.

I feel we're reaching a point in our evolution that mankind will persist beyond any future changes on Earth, even if it gets as hot as Hell.
Our population may be decimated, but our species will survive in some form.

Edit: spelling.

Also - I had a wobbly Grandmother that was prone to methane releases.

[edit on 15/9/2005 by anxietydisorder]

Oh. I see now. Ok, the tag is there at the end anyway and you can just add more.

This is easy.

That's two threads I just brought back from the dead. Hooray!

President Reagan said cow flatus was causing global warming. And that trees caused acid rain. I never saw that in Nature.

posted by Hellmutt: “Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council found that three huge methane burps 180 million years ago triggered a catastrophic increase in global temperatures. The research suggest that a frozen mixture of water and methane melted (and was released) during one of the wobbles in the Earth’s orbit that bring our planet closer to the Sun.

We’ve been here, done this, but I raised questions earlier that may have been overlooked but were not answered. I have admitted to not knowing about the methane gas locked in water ice.

I objected on the grounds the oceans do not have ice on the floor.

Even more important is that the current theory on ocean floor spreading and tectonic subduction puts the maximum age of the ocean floor at 70 million years.

I am at a loss to see how much - if any - methane gas can be locked in frozen water on the ocean bottom. On Europa, yes, but Earth, no.

Originally posted by anxietydisorder

Also - I had a wobbly Grandmother that was prone to methane releases.

In Denmark they are putting up these signs along the roads in order to reduce traffic accidents. The danes are driving too fast (The danish word "fart" means "speed" in english) ...