AN international research ship is to investigate the idea that methane is bubbling up from beneath the seabed in the Bermuda Triangle. The gas may be 鈥渙ne cause of the mysterious disappearance of ships and planes鈥� in the area, says Britain鈥檚 Natural Environment Research Council, one of the sponsors of the international Ocean Drilling Programme which will carry out the study.
The ODP鈥檚 drilling ship Resolution is to explore the Blake Ridge and Carolina Rise area of the Atlantic floor, between the US and Bermuda, from October to December. According to ODP scientist John Parks of the University of Bristol, the research will concentrate on the role of bacteria in 鈥渃old seeps鈥�, the faults in marine sediments where subterranean methane reaches the ocean floor through faults. The gas is trapped in frozen lattices, known as ice hydrates.
Ice hydrates occur both on land and beneath the sea. They may contain twice as much carbon, in the form of methane, as conventional fossil fuel reserves, says Parks, and could one day be tapped as a source of energy.
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Russian scientists, writing in the journal Priroda in 1988, suggested that methane hydrates they had discovered near Bermuda might unleash giant bubbles of gas that could overwhelm people on board ships or aircraft.