Holy crap would you look at that!: Fire balls of methane from the ice

I design and build wetlands for a living and have had plenty of experience with methane bubbles from submerged organic matter. It is very normal for methane to bubble up in small amounts from the bottom of any pond or lake where submerged organic matter is undergoing anaerobic decomposition. When the water is covered with ice, it accumulates a methane gas pocket. The quantities shown on this video are very tiny when you consider it probably took weeks for that one burst of gas to accumulate. You can achieve a similar result in the summer by placing a sheet of plastic over an area where methane is bubbling up. After an hour or so, you have enough for a small fire ball.

Lighting farts has been a favorite pastime of Boy Scouts and rednecks since before anyone on ATS was born...

Originally posted by survivalstation
As long as organic matter is able to decompose, methane will be produced. This isn't something to be worried about. It has been happening since the first tree fell into a swamp and started to rot.

And first animal etc...its a cycle that has been happening since live dawned on earth. Compare this situation to Titan...if that is an example of an early earth, then the methane is going somewhere. Earth has always found a way to let life continue here despite several extinctions and near life ending disasters. I don't see this stopping anything...at least not in the near future.

Like someone above said, Just light it on fire... travel.spotcoolstuff.com... ... and we'll get another one of these if the pocket is big enough.