Swamp Gas

It has become a seemingly well understood, yet cliche argument in the U.F.O community. A running joke if you will. Sightings explained away as swamp gas. So I was curious about what swamp gas looks like. I dont think there is any question it exists, there is plenty of footage of rotten vegetation bubbling to the surface of water. But the best video I could find of anything remotely bright, on fire or air born (after some careful web research) was a re-creation, an experiment. Personally I know it would help if I could see actual swamp gas in all it's glory, tricking my eye in to thinking I am seeing something out of the ordinary.Can anyone point me in the right direction?

reply to post by tasteslikethunder
Here it is in all its glory...dah dah dahhhh



It's just like a close encounter of the second kind from the safety of the armchair!

reply to post by Kandinsky


No I get it - swamp gas is a very simple proven scientific reality. But what i don't understand is this giant leap in to explaining away flying disc shapes floating in the sky. so far (as with this video) All I see is lab recreations of how methane is flammable. I would just like one photograph or video footage of this phenomena creating the illusion of a U.F.O. I honestly dont mean to be harsh or ignorant, just informed.

reply to post by tasteslikethunder
This post here might help you understand why Hynek used the 'marsh gas' claim. He was under pressure to explain it away and the best he could come up with was that. He subsequently made it clear that it wasn't something he actually thought was true or realistic.

You won't find photos or video of natural methane burning that looks like UFOs - I spent a lot of time looking a couple of years ago.

The video was to highlight how a glowing flame in no way compares to a large object with flashing red lights.

Mannor may well have been as dishonest as Hynek in this case, but marsh gas and large flashing objects have nothing at all in common. For what it's worth, I think Mannor was telling the truth about what he claimed to have seen.

reply to post by tasteslikethunder

Personally I know it would help if I could see actual swamp gas in all it's glory

Well here you go then .

Scientific explanation
The oxidation of phosphine and methane, produced by organic decay, can cause photon emissions. Since phosphine spontaneously ignites on contact with the oxygen in air, only small quantities of it would be needed to ignite the much more abundant methane to create ephemeral fires.

Chemists have replicated the lights by adding some chemicals to gases from rotting compounds. They argue that the combustion can be sustained at lower temperatures than those found in traditional fires. Taken together, these findings seem to explain two of the more puzzling aspects of the will-o'-the-wisp — its spontaneous, transient nature and its low-temperature "flame" that doesn't seem to burn close-by ignitable items.
www.absoluteastronomy.com...

Of course as pointed out by Kandinsky the marsh lights theory put forward by Hynek was just a get out of jail free card for he himself didn't believe it , but he was under pressure to find a prosaic answer so he did .

Ok. So I'll just file that theory firmly in to the bull**it pile. Thanks for the help!

I've seen swamp gas in the swamps of Maryland, and some moist wooded areas, on my spring wild turkey hunts before dawn. Some stories tell of swamps casting an erie glow --- though the best way to see swamp gas is to walk around a swamp, during nightime, till you see small faint glowing patches on the ground, about every 10 or so square feet. Kneel down...and you will see an approx. 1 inch round piece of decaying vegetation, that is giving off photons. The biggest glow of swamp gas for me: was lighting up the toe of my hiking boot as I placed it next to the swamp gas emitter.

J. Allen Hynek... later admitted that the UFO incident that he labled as "swamp gas" was a major mistake on his part. My opinion...is that Hynek was a CIA spook, who's intent was to mislead the public about the UFO enigma.