Some ice can catch fire. Methane hydrate looks like ordinary ice, but it traps flammable gas inside. A lit match can set the ice itself burning.
🏛️ Must Know
What methane hydrate is, and where it forms
- Structure Methane hydrate is also called methane clathrate, or “fire ice”. It is a solid, ice-like structure. Water molecules form a cage around trapped methane gas.
- Formation It forms only under high pressure and low temperature. These conditions keep the methane locked inside the water cage.
- Location Large deposits sit in Arctic permafrost and tundra regions. Huge amounts also lie buried under the seafloor, along continental margins.
- Origin Most of this methane forms from the bacterial decay of buried organic matter. Some also leaks up from deeper oil and gas deposits below.
Good to Know
📘 Good to Know
Why warming can release this trapped gas
- Trigger Global warming can raise the temperature of permafrost and ocean water. This can destabilise the hydrate and free the methane inside.
- Feedback loop Released methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. It can add to warming, which then risks releasing even more methane.
- Vulnerable zones Shallow Arctic deposits are especially at risk. The Arctic itself is warming much faster than the global average.
📝 Previous Year Questions
UPSC CSP 2019 — Methane hydrate deposits
- UPSC 2019 UPSC CSP 2019 asked which statements on methane hydrate deposits are correct. All three given statements were correct: global warming can trigger methane release, large deposits sit in Arctic tundra and under the seafloor, and atmospheric methane oxidises to carbon dioxide within a decade or two. The correct answer is (d) 1, 2 and 3. See UPSC CSP 2019 GS Paper I, Q34. View this question.
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Great to Know
🌟 Great to Know
Methane’s short life in the atmosphere, and the “clathrate gun” idea
- Lifetime Once in the atmosphere, methane does not stay forever. It oxidises into carbon dioxide and water vapour over roughly a decade or two.
- Comparison This lifetime is far shorter than carbon dioxide’s. CO2 can linger in the atmosphere for centuries after it is emitted.
- Clathrate gun Scientists call sudden large-scale methane release the “clathrate gun” hypothesis. It suggests such a burst could sharply speed up climate change.
- Ongoing research Researchers have already recorded active methane seepage on some Arctic continental margins. This is linked to measured decades-long warming of nearby ocean waters.
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