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Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. [1] Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world. [2]

55 million years later another methane bubble ruptured causing more mass extinctions during the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (LPTM).

The LPTM lasted 100,000 years. [3]

Those subterranean seas of methane virtually reshaped the planet when they explosively blew from deep beneath the waters of what is today called the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, worried scientists are increasingly concerned the same series of catastrophic events that led to worldwide death back then may be happening again-and no known technology can stop it.

The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.

The oil giant drilled down miles into a geologically unstable region and may have set the stage for the eventual premature release of a methane mega-bubble.

Ryskin’s methane extinction theory

Northwestern University's Gregory Ryskin, a bio-chemical engineer, has a theory: The oceans periodically produce massive eruptions of explosive methane gas. He has documented the scientific evidence that such an event was directly responsible for the mass extinctions that occurred 55 million years ago. [4]

Many geologists concur: "The consequences of a methane-driven oceanic eruption for marine and terrestrial life are likely to be catastrophic. Figuratively speaking, the erupting region "boils over," ejecting a large amount of methane and other gases (e.g., CO2, H2S) into the atmosphere, and flooding large areas of land. Whereas pure methane is lighter than air, methane loaded with water droplets is much heavier, and thus spreads over the land, mixing with air in the process (and losing water as rain). The air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%; as such mixtures form in different locations near the ground and are ignited by lightning, explosions and conflagrations destroy most of the terrestrial life, and also produce great amounts of smoke and of carbon dioxide..." [5]

The warning signs of an impending planetary catastrophe—of such great magnitude that the human mind has difficulty grasping it-would be the appearance of large fissures or rifts splitting open the ocean floor, a rise in the elevation of the seabed, and the massive venting of methane and other gases into the surrounding water.

Such occurrences can lead to the rupture of the methane bubble containment—it can then permit the methane to breach the subterranean depths and undergo an explosive decompression as it catapults into the Gulf waters. [6]

All three warning signs are documented to be occurring in the Gulf.

Ground zero: The Gulf Coast

The people and property located on the greater expanse of the Gulf Coast are sitting at Ground Zero. They will be the first exposed to poisonous, cancer causing chemical gases. They will be the ones that initially experience the full fury of a methane bubble exploding from the ruptured seabed.

The media has been kept away from the emergency salvage measures being taken to forestall the biggest catastrophe in human history. The federal government has warned them away from the epicenter of operations with the threat of a $40,000 fine for each infraction and the possibility of felony arrests.

Why is the press being kept away? Word is that the disaster is escalating.

Cracks and bulges

Methane is now streaming through the porous, rocky seabed at an accelerated rate and gushing from the borehole of the first relief well. The EPA is on record that Rig #1 is releasing methane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic gases. Workers there now wear advanced protection including state-of-the-art, military-issued gas masks.

Reports, filtering through from oceanologists and salvage workers in the region, state that the upper level strata of the ocean floor is succumbing to greater and greater pressure. That pressure is causing a huge expanse of the seabed-estimated by some as spreading over thousands of square miles surrounding the BP wellhead-to bulge. Some claim the seabed in the region has risen an astounding 30 feet.

The fractured BP wellhead, site of the former Deepwater Horizon, has become the epicenter of frenetic attempts to quell the monstrous flow of methane.

The subterranean methane is pressurized at 100,000 pounds psi. According to Matt Simmons, an oil industry expert, the methane pressure at the wellhead has now skyrocketed to a terrifying 40,000 pounds psi.

Another well-respected expert, Dr. John Kessler of Texas A&M University has calculated that the ruptured well is spewing 60 percent oil and 40 percent methane. The normal methane amount that escapes from a compromised well is about 5 percent.

More evidence? A huge gash on the ocean floor—like a ragged wound hundreds of feet long—has been reported by the NOAA research ship, Thomas Jefferson. Before the curtain of the government enforced news blackout again descended abruptly, scientists aboard the ship vmiced their concerns that the widening rift may go down miles into the earth.

That gash too is hemorrhaging oil and methane. It’s 10 miles away from the BP epicenter. Other, new fissures, have been spotted as far as 30 miles distant.

Measurements of the multiple oil plumes now appearing miles from the wellhead indicate that as much as a total of 124,000 barrels of oil are erupting into the Gulf waters daily-that’s about 5,208,000 gallons of oil per day.

Most disturbing of all: Methane levels in the water are now calculated as being almost one million times higher than normal. [7]

Mass death on the water

If the methane bubble—a bubble that could be as big as 20 miles wide—erupts with titanic force from the seabed into the Gulf, every ship, drilling rig and structure within the region of the bubble will immediately sink. All the workers, engineers, Coast Guard personnel and marine biologists participating in the salvage operation will die instantly.

Next, the ocean bottom will collapse, instantaneously displacing up to a trillion cubic feet of water or more and creating a towering supersonic tsunami annihilating everything along the coast and well inland. Like a thermonuclear blast, a high pressure atmospheric wave could precede the tidal wave flattening everything in its path before the water arrives.

When the roaring tsunami does arrive it will scrub away all that is left.

A chemical cocktail of poisons

Some environmentalist experts are calling what’s pouring into the land, sea and air from the seabed breach ’a chemical cocktail of poisons.’

Areas of dead zones devoid of oxygen are driving species of fish into foreign waters, killing plankton and other tiny sea life that are the foundation for the entire food chain, and polluting the air with cancer-causing chemicals and poisonous rainfalls.

A report from one observer in South Carolina documents oily residue left behind after a recent thunderstorm. And before the news blackout fully descended the EPA released data that benzene levels in New Orleans had rocketed to 3,000 parts per billion.

Benzene is extremely toxic and even short term exposure can cause agonizing death from cancerous lesions years later.

The people of Louisiana have been exposed for more than two months—and the benzene levels may be much higher now. The EPA measurement was taken in early May. [8]

Doomsday

While some say it can’t happen because the bulk of the methane is frozen into crystalline form, others point out that the underground methane sea is gradually melting from the nearby surging oil that’s estimated to be as hot as 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most experts in the know, however, agree that if the world-changing event does occur it will happen suddenly and within the next 6 months.

So, if events go against Mankind and the bubble bursts in the coming months, Gregory Ryskin may become one of the most famous people in the world. Of course, he won't have long to enjoy his new found fame because very shortly after the methane eruption civilization will collapse.

Perhaps if humanity is very, very lucky, some may find a way to avoid the mass extinction that follows and carry on the human race.

Perhaps.


http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doom...d-killing-event



The theory of methane eruptions is interesting, and there seems to be some evidence that it resulted in the Permian extinction of sea-life.

However, in a case like that we're talking about SO MUCH methane, nothing close to this amount flowing right now. Sure, there could be an enormous methane bubble that triggers rapid climate change, but such an eruption could occur with or without drilling activity. The BP oil spill just lets Ryskin capitalize on an existing doomsday theory he has. Right now there's basically zero evidence that BP's spill will lead to methane release anywhere near the Permian extinction event. It is smaller by orders of magnitude.

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I hope it holds off until we win something.

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It's almost 2012 ......


Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
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I thought we'd have 983 days left to live but this stupid thing says we only have 6 months

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Time for drug testing....

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Quote:

Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event




Uhh, the world will always be here. I think the debate will be whether or not its a human-killing event. WE are NOT the world.

I've posted this quote from George Carlin a bunch of times. I love it . . .

"The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!

We’re going away. Pack your s***, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet’s doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, how the planet’s doing. You wanna know if the planet’s all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does."

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Did they find a 250 million year old newspaper or what?

I can only say, West Nile, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Mad cow, Bad Hurricane seasons, global Warming, and The Y2K Meltdown...

Did I miss anything?

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Damn you George Bush, I am sure someone is going to show a way this is all your fault!

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SARS.

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Quote:

Damn you George Bush, I am sure someone is going to show a way this is all your fault!




No it's obamas fault, just like 9/11 and Katrina!

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Or, it may have relieved some pressure and pushed back the extinction event by another 40-60 million years.

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Quote:

Or, it may have relieved some pressure and pushed back the extinction event by another 40-60 million years.




...so I bought all of this duct tape and scuba gear for nothing?

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Quote:

Quote:

Or, it may have relieved some pressure and pushed back the extinction event by another 40-60 million years.




...so I bought all of this duct tape and scuba gear for nothing?




No, you can still use it to tape someone up and secure them to the bottom of a lake.


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Nothing like a bit of fear mongering to get readers for a story. Maybe we should get saltwater sea cows to fix this mess.

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This WILL eventually happen. Kind of like yellow stone erupting or metor's hiting the planet. It's just inevitable.

This is an issue of sea-floor methane pockets being tapped, rupturing, and releasing enormous amounts of underwater methane into the ocean. Fortunately, though, evidence of a doomsday scenario would be seen in enormous pockets of hypoxia, which as of now aren't present.

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When it happens, does it look like a giant fart in the bathtub?

Anyone know where GM was during the last release?


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I saw something similar when this first happened, but it was saying that the methane bubble release could have actually caused the rig failure (instead of the other way around).

Either way, if this bubble goes, then we're dead, so worrying won't matter. Or, I might be sitting on oceanfront property in Austin.


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Holy crap, NL... how many Austin posters do we have?

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Just 2 but it seems like more because you never shut up.




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Quote:

Just 2 but it seems like more because you never shut up.








that's only because it's the offseason and Toad isn't around right now.



clevesteve, thought you knew I was in Austin from the previous 'energy' thread? anyways, I think it's me, you, moon, and Toad (until he moves to Vegas)

i'm missing one....rage?


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If this thing blows...were in big trouble..

if its true the ocean floor has bulged up that much, and the methane is pouring out of there at that rate along with the heat coming from that oil if it really is that hot..

we have a ticking time bomb on our hands that we can do absolutely nothing about...

if that methane bubble gets that big and explodes...thats a global killer, like the movie Armageddon...we will all be dog meat...

hopefully the Browns win a championship before this happens of course

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I keep my mouth shut for the most part. But let it be known that there is another austin poster here...

NoLogo - I looked at some property on Lake Travis and for what they were asking, it seems that some people think there actually is ocean Front property in Austin.

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NoLogo - I looked at some property on Lake Travis and for what they were asking, it seems that some people think there actually is ocean Front property in Austin.






that's why I stay far south. i don't think most of the city realizes Austin extends South of Lady Bird Lake (and hopefully it stays that way )


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One good thing....... LeBron will go before we do.......Unless we are on vacation in Florida.

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This just in ... reporter rips off history channel and exercises his imagination. It's a good short read that uses real scientific data, instead of a history channel mega-disaster episode, that debunks the doomsday scenario.

io9: Methane bubble Doomsday scenario ... not that bad really.


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DraftDayz:

Good read, however I do agree with one of the comments on that site:

Quote:


The post you respond to is breathless and short on science, but you don't really address his scenario. He is not positing that the methane that is seeping from the compromised well into the water will form a bubble that causes a mass extinction event. He's positing that there is a massive methane bubble under the ocean floor that is building (hence his claim that the sea floor is rising) and perhaps will be released in a cataclysmic eruption. I'd be interested to hear what the scientists you spoke to think of that scenario.





The article does not address why the Ocean Floor is bulging up nor does the article address what the original article stated which is:

a massive Methane bubble is forming "under" the seabed on the ocean floor beneath the DWH oil break...

That article did not debunk that at all, nor address those issues..

too bad too, I was hoping that would have been addressed.

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Quote:

That article did not debunk that at all, nor address those issues..




Sure it did. The original article said that " Most disturbing of all: Methane levels in the water are now calculated as being almost one million times higher than normal. [7] "

The actual scientists who study this say that: " During our recent cruise to the Gulf we observed significantly elevated levels of methane at water depth greater than 2500 feet, in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon spill site. While the total quantity of methane and other hydrocarbons is enough to cause problems with the regional ecosystem, there is no plausible scenario by which this event alone will cause global-scale extinctions. "

And then the blog author provides links at the bottom that show how methane bubbles work, which is much different than what's being proposed by the doomsday author.

Not only that, he misconstrues the permian extinction event, something the original author of the paper he cites continually doesn't even do. He's peddling a very tenuous hypothesis as fact, while backing it up with a history channel hype episode and something he keeps referring to as an "information blackout," which is an appeal to a conspiracy. He has nothing to stand on.


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Draftdayz:

Perhaps you misunderstood me, or perhaps maybe I didn't type clearly what I meant:

The Original Article says:

Quote:


Reports, filtering through from oceanologists and salvage workers in the region, state that the upper level strata of the ocean floor is succumbing to greater and greater pressure. That pressure is causing a huge expanse of the seabed-estimated by some as spreading over thousands of square miles surrounding the BP wellhead-to bulge. Some claim the seabed in the region has risen an astounding 30 feet.

A huge gash on the ocean floor—like a ragged wound hundreds of feet long—has been reported by the NOAA research ship, Thomas Jefferson. Before the curtain of the government enforced news blackout again descended abruptly, scientists aboard the ship voiced their concerns that the widening rift may go down miles into the earth.

That gash too is hemorrhaging oil and methane. It’s 10 miles away from the BP epicenter. Other, new fissures, have been spotted as far as 30 miles distant.




what i was referring to is the the pressure being built up "below" the earth's crust under the ocean floor...

The article you posted does not address this..

its not about how much methane is in the water

its about all that pressure building up under the ocean floor...if the ocean floor is all bulged and bent upwards and there are crack down there, that is a sign of great pressure and that is the only part of this that worries me.

i am not and neither did the debunk article talk about this, the debunk article talks about the "levels of methane in the water"

it is NOT talking about the ocean floor bulging under great pressure from most likely oil and methane both.

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KoB is referring to an event that is percolating under the ocean floor. Eventually, methane will release into the water and Doomsday ensues.

The second article says we're not there yet, but doesn't address the pressure underneath the ocean floor.

KoB, if it's not happening in the next few months, we don't care! Haha


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Sea Cows put out a lot of methane, maybe that's the cause?


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haha oobernoober agreed!

i say we all just be merry, eat much food, drinks lots of merry ale and just be happy for a change!


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As long as they send me a check every week I could do that.

You doofs who think you can get ahead by working hard keep trying, everyone knows the government will take care of us.


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There is obviously a problem that some don't want us to know about....or, maybe it is simply the government doesn't want the media to impede the effort..hard to say which, though I don't really see how taking some picture impedes anything.


The reports of these fissures is alarming. It could be the explosion did in fact weaken a already weak crust and this stuff is leaking out all over the ocean floor...that or BP and the Government are using coagulants that sink the oil to the floor....in the end, BP is only going to have to pay for the surface mess, never mind the goop and guck that ferments on the Gulf floor for the next 20 years.


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Quote:

haha oobernoober agreed!

i say we all just be merry, eat much food, drinks lots of merry ale and just be happy for a change!






Party at my place!


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