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Methane clathrates are unstable water / methane compounds which apparently form big deposits in various places on the sea floor. The clathrate requires cold temperatures and high pressure to remain stable. If a fleet of ships were travelling over a clathrate bed, they could all be sunk en masse by
detonating a medium size bomb in the clathrate bed. A huge flurry of bubbles would fill the ocean around the ships, which would fall into the water as it was suddenly less dense.
This idea I think would find its best application in one of those Preston and Child thriller fiction books, or maybe a summer action film. Best of all: if the bomb were hot, the methane might ignite as it came up out of the ocean, making for fine special effects.
Methane Clathrates
http://www.scienceb...ty/article2120.html
[bungston, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]
Bermuda Triangle
http://www.bermuda-...thane_hydrates.html
The idea's out there, but you're the first to attach a bomb to it. [kevindimie, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]
[link]
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I'm giving this a + if for no other reason than for explaining an uncommon term instead of assuming that everyone and their dogs knew what you were talking about. |
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that's right, Dice, you did know what it meant. Good dog |
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//the methane might ignite// In a movie it will, in reality it won't for lack of Oxygen, but for a movie this is a nice idea. |
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I saw this floated (sorry) as a possible explanation for the Bermuda Triangle phenonema. |
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You watched that show too? |
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I'm not sure we know enough about how these deposits are there or how they are stabilised to allow us to exploit them in any way. I know there is a fair amount of research trying to work out how we can tap the energy in the deposits, but a solution is a long way off. |
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I’d like some crushed clathrate for my flaming margarita...please. |
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//I saw this floated (sorry) as a possible explanation for the Bermuda Triangle phenonema.// |
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Now I worry that I watched that show also, and took possession of the idea as my own. Happens all the time. |
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I read it in a magazine, actually... might have been Discover. |
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- What about Tod?
- I've taken care of Tod.
- Dead?
- Better than dead.
- Tod's a hell of a marine geologist. I think you're underestimating him.
- Bah!
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- I just spoke to the president, Tod. They won't do anything to a ship under French flag without more evidence.
- Damn democracy! But wait... yes! The convoy's route will take them directly over the largest field of clathrate deposits in the world! Captain, do you have any oily rags and bits of string on board?
- Wait, what are clathrate deposits?
- Well, you see, Timmy, 600 million years ago...
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+ from me for the education factor. |
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Now this is a switch; wibciwwtstina.... "wouldn't it be cool if we were to see this in a movie?" |
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What you need is a bomb that supplies its own oxygen source, like those underwater flares. |
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How interesting. After seeing that television show as well, I decided to create my own methane clathrate experiment in my bathtub with toy boats. It began with a trip to Taco Bell.... |
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Reason number 73 never to sit next to Clogan. |
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I am voting against this. There's evidence that suggests that a large methane clathrate release was responsible for the rapid global warming that resulted in the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago. Let's try not to upset the undersea clathrate beds too much, shall we? |
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I think using clathrates as explosives makes sense, but not the ones at the bottom of the ocean. Artificial clathrates could also be used to inflate emergency airbags and lifeboats, or anything one wanted rapidly inflated in fact. That would get past the mass extinction problem. |
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"Problem ?" What problem ? You talk about it like it's a bad thing ..... |
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