From: EvMick@aol.com
Date: Thu Jan 18 2001 - 17:21:10 MST
In "Mother of Storms" by John Barnes a superstorm is postulated.
Methane....that arch green house gas....is the villian.
I quote:
"One strange fact about ice, when you think about it, is that it floats.
Solid butter sinks to the bottom of liquid butter, solid iron sinks to the
bottom of liquid iron, solid nitrogen sinks to the bottom of liquid
nitrogen...but solid water floats on liquid water.
Imagine a microscope fine enough to show you why. The water molecule is bent
at an agle and try as you like, it doesn't pack neatly. Freeze water, so
that the molecules start to lline up into crystals, and that sloppy packing
leaves a lot of empty space,--more empty space than when they are just
rolling around on each other.
Freeze water another way, and there's so much extra space you can trap other
molecules between the water molecules. That's called a clathrate--Latin for
a "cage, trellis, or grating"---and all kinds of things can be held in there.
As when twenty-three water molecules make a cage around four methane
molecules.
There is lots of methane in the seabed. Everything that sinks down there
rots and there's not much free oxygen. Many anaerobic decay processes release
methane. Dead stuff has been rotting on the seabed for a long time--and
since the last few ice ages, it's been cold enough down there to trap methane
in the clathrates. On the Artic Ocean floor many clathrate beds are tens of
meters thick and hundreds of kilometers across"
End of quote.
Presumeably methane clathrate doesn't float.
I dunno if the above is true or not...(I have no internet connection any
longer....just email...so I can't check it out) .it certainly sounds
feasible to me.
If it IS correct...and if a huge amount of methane is suddenly released into
the atmosphere.....then presumeably there would REALLY be some global
warming.
And oceanic warming .
If the oceans get warmer the Hurricane spawning grounds get larger. If the
spawning grounds get larger the Hurricanes get larger. Possibly a LOT larger.
If there is ENOUGH methane released into the atmosphere.....and the ocean
water temp gets to ......say........a hundred degrees F. or more over a huge
area.........bad things could happen.
Is a hurricane with a supersonic eye wall possible?
IF it's possible what might it's effects be.
HUGE waves I would imagine.....HUGE storm surges.....
Globally. Any location even near a sea coast would be scoured.
John Barnes goes into such a scenario in his book which is set in the not so
distant future.(circa 2030).......It's very interesting...I highly recommend
it.
However.
I'm wondering what might have happened had there been, say, an asteroid or
small comet strike, which caused the clathate beds to release gigantic
quantities of methane into earth's atmosphere in pre-historic or very early
historic times.
Suppose this is a recurring theme? Suppose it has happened every few hundred
millenia or so. Would such a superstorm be sufficient to cause massive
extinctions? Surely it would be enough to destroy primitive civilizations.
EvMick
LittleRock Ark.
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