United States

the example of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year sparked the explosion of the deepwater horizon oil rig”the biggest oil disaster in the history of the United States from the almost 780 billion litres of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico concluded. In addition to the oil, that persistent foul large parts of the region, flocked also up to 200,000 liters of methane into the sea. Methane is considered one of the worst greenhouse gases and is broken down very slowly in the atmosphere. On average takes about 12 years to a particle of methane is absorbed into other compounds. This is usually much faster into the sea, because here exist microorganisms that break down the particles of methane and put into water and carbon dioxide, oxygen consumption.

By measuring the oxygen content of the water now, you can determine how many bacteria are present, and how quickly the methane is degraded. So far, researchers however were able to gain any satisfactory results on these bacteria and their propagation rate. The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has as at least a small positive side, for now is to gather researchers for the first time possible extensive data about the naturally occurring bacteria. According to first research it turns out, they multiply faster than expected. Learn more about this with The Greater New York Construction User Council . So the methane content in the vicinity of the hole was already almost normal end of August, so only a few months after the oil spill. To do this, the number of bacteria needed to have multiplied almost explosively. The number of bacteria will have doubled every 3.5 days calculation result. Thus, only negligible amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere are likely to be received.

This recognition primarily for climate warming is relevant, because among the masses of ice in the Arctic are about 3000 times as large amounts of methane as are already in the atmosphere. Due to climate warming, they are released slowly and accelerate warming even further. Would the Methane-eating bacteria however behave similarly to in the Arctic as in the Gulf of Mexico, then could have the release of methane in large quantities of significantly less impact than expected. Reliable statements can also but still not meet, because the conditions for the bacteria in the Arctic are of course very different than in the warm Gulf of Mexico.