I’m going to add this to the top of last night’s post rather than start a new one, mainly to preserve the comment thread. This is about the potential for an extinction event that is being discussed various places on the Internet; that event would be related to a giant methane bubble under the Gulf of Mexico that could rupture and create a mass die-off, as has happened at other times in geological (very very long) history.
For the past couple of years I’ve written for The Ecologist about another kind of extinction event — dioxin. One psychological advantage that I have is that since the early 1990s I’ve addressed global contamination with compounds that are indeed, actually killing many people prematurely, and are wrought with denial and lies.
What BP and the government are doing sounds entirely familiar and I am accustomed to the psychology of the deception, profit motive and legal/mental/media maneuvering.
I know from too much personal experience that the TV, newspapers, corporate PR departments and government officials are capable of spewing absolute total lies, then accusing anyone who doesn’t believe their lies of being crazy. (This is part of the story of why I am an astrologer, rather than working every day an environmental investigative reporter. If I’m going to do something that some people think is crazy, I may as well have more fun, be appreciated for my work and make a good living at it along the way.)
BP and the US government would be doing all of that without an extinction event on the horizon. Even your average normal worst ecological disaster in the world, or the 10th worst, would have them all scurrying like pigeons, shredding their memos and having lawyers cut up the bananas on their breakfast cereal, to make sure they don’t incur any additional liability.
Anyway this morning my former editor at The Ecologist, Pat Thomas, saw our discussion here and sent me this article, which she rated as a decent piece of writing on the methane issue.
Before I quote the article, I want to say that as those involved on the holistic level of the issue, the psychology and the sociology of this, or the existential spiritual level (whatever you want to call it), we need to consider those dimensions of this potential as well. The methane megabubble may or may not “be true,” but the fact that our psyches have conjured it and have an attraction or attachment to the issue is worth considering.
When we address the theme of mass extinction we must also account for individual mortality and consider our relationship to it. When we notice vast lies we need to look at the lies we tell and the lies we believe. We need to account for how that methane bubble is inside of us: the pressure of all that we, as individuals and as a society, hold down all the time and did long before April 20, 2010. And let’s not forget the Dr. Strangelove scenario: the world is still rigged with various nuclear devices that could do as much damage to humanity — and I would note that both the Earth and humanity will survive, just in rather different forms.
Now, here is a basic explanation of the potential methane bubble under the Gulf of Mexico. This is an undated article from an online magazine called Helium. I am not vouching for it: I am presenting it to you as a theory.
Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a ‘world-killing’ event
by Terrence Aym
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.
Last night’s post follows.
Here is something thought you should know about. This is the first I’m hearing of if. The assertion — if I understand this correctly — is that the sea floor is bubbling up, as in the whole sea bottom, under pressure from a methane bubble; which is analogous to a supervolcano like the one under Yosemite.
I am left wondering a few things. One is how a methane bubble can push up seven miles of bedrock, under a mile of water. Another is what this has to do with the well blowout, which seems like a normal enough blowout except for the depth. How did the blowout cause the presumed bubble? Was it by disturbing the pressure down there? The third is the relationship between the hole in the sea floor through which all the other oil is supposedly gushing, and the whole sea floor rising up like there’s a gas bubble. Last, if 96% of us are going to be extinguished, why not have a big orgy? (I’ve never needed the end of the world as an excuse for that…)
I personally don’t doubt that any of this is possible; I don’t doubt that there is a whole other version of events than we are getting on television. But if that is the case, then we should be able to assemble something from a combination of the bits that we know, observed facts that have percolated through, known geological facts, eyewitness reports and the astrology. In a comment below I have posted the chart. The chart is also contained in this article, which lists some of the asteroids and other minor planets involved in the incident — most of them on the cardinal cross.
We last had a Saturn-Uranus-Pluto configuration in the mid-1960s. It was intense though no, it did not involve the Aries Point.
Who writes and who publishes something matters if there is an agenda involved, and by agenda, I mean one that is not stated openly.
In logic, there is a fallacy called the ad hominem attack: the notion something is not true because of who said it. “We can’t believe this guy, he’s a liar.” That is not logical because it does not examine the facts stated.
However, in actual human experience, the credibility of the speaker matters. It is a way to expedite the process of whose facts to evaluate, and it’s a way to discern the agenda involved.
If I say, “The air smells nice,” it’s one statement. If a Monsanto spokesman says it, it’s another statement. There are exceptions to the classical logical fallacies. As Wikipedia puts it in a footnoted article, “The ad hominem is a classic logical fallacy. [However,] the argumentum ad hominem is not always fallacious, for in some instances questions of personal conduct, character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue.”
You’ll find a good link on this, in spiritual context, at Reality Sandwich
http://www.realitysandwich.com/gulf_oil_spill_unfolding_prophecy
Also, here’s an article on the Convergence this weekend, as well as info at my blog
http://www.realitysandwich.com/vision_conscious_convergence
http://www.judeshere.wordpress.com
Edgar Cayce, when asked about the attitude one should adopt when facing the possibility of dying during earth changes, indicated that we should live our lives so as to be ready at ANY point for that transition. I’d say that advice is as good now as it was when he gave it, in the 40’s. That said, I’m not preparing for any ‘goodbye’ parties.
wandering yeti – I too relate to your statements. Thank you.
I find impetus to offer a point of contemplation to the sub – conversation about someone named Terrence Aym who was mistakenly thought to have written an article at a URL I posted (posted as a quick response to “do we know about this” a couple of nights ago, late, tired, but wanted to acknowledge that “yes” – we know, although not mainstream until MSNBC anyway.)
OK – point of contemplation — I personally find it important at this juncture of our human evolution we refrain from labeling, lumping and subsequently “tuning out” people that we think may have nothing important to say.
I do not think the article I posted was ” alarmist” in any way – although that’s a mix up and wasn’t written by the “Tea Bagger” Terrence Aym anyway. What if it had been written by this person? Was the information less valuable? Yes, I know – “that depends”.
However, I would personally consider this: If I’m wearing a ‘Conservative’ t-shirt and you’re a ‘Liberal’ and I run past you shouting “the sky is falling”, would you look up?
I think this is an important aspect of what we are passing through just now and an apt time to consider “our” answer/s.
Did we, for example, in the case of BP listen to CBS Nightly News? Or did we go exploring, looking to find out more, KNOWING we were not given the whole story? (Eric’s been having us scratchin’ our heads considering this here at PW for awhile – isn’t that part of why wer’re all here?)
This is also where the comment about Y2K and H1N1 comes in to play. Were these just cases of “crying wolf” (after the fact, mind you) – so we should turn away and not listen when the next situation comes along?
Or could we look for the broader pattern/s and consider that ACTUALLY we are raising our AWARENESS with each and every one of these situations — such that perhaps we could run with the Raising Awareness Theme and rejoice that we can be alert and aware enough to deal with what is before us?
I think we’ve come a long long way – hurrah to us! It’s my belief that we’ve a short time for a long journey just now, but, well, to quote Ceasar Chavez once again – “Yes We Can”.
Respect – fully,
Linda
Explosion chart as defining moment- yes, it’s the spike that contains an imprint of its moment in time. Every chart has references to its own past and future. The lunar nodes especially. Then connections to other charts like Neptune passing over a return that creates meaningful connections (aspects) to a snapshot of the sky during the time when Neptune was discovered, which was also around the time of the rise of industry and the juggernaut of capitalism in its present form. This can lead to information overload which is why it’s important for astrologers to maintain awareness of intention while reading charts this way. I think the astrologer’s intention is part of what creates meaning out of pictures of moments in heavenly bodies. So you really don’t need the chart for the commencement of drilling. The spike has more than enough information to tell you about the whole thing.
Sarah- yeah, I thought of that after I hit the button. Maybe G8 (or however many it is now) would be better. Still, America consumes most of the oil.
Also- Pluto in the 2nd house, Luna in the 8th. Pluto’s ruler is that Saturn walking backwards in Virgo. Follow the money. I don’t think it was anything so convoluted as a plot to blow up a well. To me it seems that explosions and leaks and spills are just part of what it means to drive our world on oil. They happen all the time. This one happened in really deep water on American shores so it got more attention in the juggernaut of American media. But I don’t think it was sabotage, terrorism or anything like that. I think it was doing really resource intensive work with high cost on many levels while only paying attention to the level that’s the money in the bank accounts of the CEO’s and financiers.
wandering_yeti:
“You could confine it to “the oil industry” but that monster isn’t separate from the whole system of consumerism that America adopted as her new religion shortly after WWII.”
And I’d extend that out further to encompass other parts of the world, the UK included.
Fair enough. Like I said I am coming from total novice POV. I guess what I was really thinking about, though didn’t phrase it very well, was when they they struck oil, pierced the ‘methane bubble’ so to speak, but guess this isn’t, as you say, the defining moment. x
Oil explosion chart- Here’s some thoughts: Sag rising is American industrial juggernaut full steam ahead, the media bedazzled facade on the Sun in Taurus whose ruler, Venus is local. The other ruler of Taurus is Luna in her own sign just past the south node in the 8th house- other people’s money, water, home, protection. Sun and moon both tied up in rulerships that lead back to their own signs and each other plus a retrograde Saturn turning a blind eye as a complete lack of oversight- the absent father so common in individuals with retro Saturn here is the governmental bodies like the MMS not regulating the party represented by the Sag ascendant.
Then you throw Pholus in and I think it’s really interesting that it’s just below the eastern horizon very much like the oil well under the surface of the sea. Sag’s ruler is in Pisces, again his own sign. I think this chart is about America’s self image and practices to maintain that self image blowing up in America’s face. You could confine it to “the oil industry” but that monster isn’t separate from the whole system of consumerism that America adopted as her new religion shortly after WWII.
The commencement of drilling is not the same as the disaster itself, and we would not have a time for that anyway. Plus you could take that back to various incidents like the application being approved or the plan being thought of. There are issues like, when does drilling begin? With test borings? Who was there at the time to confirm what was what?
The blowout is the defining moment; the point of no return. Based on witness accounts and government documents, we know when that happened. That is what we are charting: there must be an energetic point of emergence, contact, definition — something different and unique that defines the situation as it is now.
ps…thanks for the input GG on Terrence Aym, author of the article I first sent. Like Ii said Ii was scaning more for content but it makes sense of the general tone of the piece, though I’ve read similar elsewhere and they can’t all be Tea Party nuts. Most of the media are bending over backwards to squeeze every possible bit of drama out of this story. What you say Eric about the Tea Party picking up on the “existing memes, science, lies, distortions” reminded me suddenly of a piece Bill Moyers did a while ago. It’s around in various forms/lengths on the web. I think we even printed it in the Ecologist once upon a time. But it was how these Bible-bashing types – a large chunk of American society after all – can’t wait for the ‘rapture’ which is why they can’t be bothered to care about the environment (might explian Terrence’s zeal). Here’s a bit of it from Truth Out http://tiny.cc/ijket
RE: the blowout chart… Can I be a complete astrology novice, idiot, etc, and ask what may be a silly question? Would the chart for when BP started drilling possibly reveal anything useful? I realise the data would be hard to get but… isn’t that the ‘birthday’ of the project?
GG..the Helium story wasn’t written by Terrence Aym,
At the bottom of the page I posted URL for, Helium does list Terrence as the author of another story to which you can link if you so choose. The URL I listed is to an article written by a house painter wannabe writer named Dave Jackson. This checks out if you click again on the URL waaaaaay down the list here. (I linked to page 2 not 1 oops).
.
Helium.com is not a “reliable” source, but it was an informative article with information that meshed with a whole lot that I’ve been reading for months now.
As mentioned in that post below, I found the article “on the fly” (that is, did not check out Dave) – but I knew it had the same info I had been reading from more “reliable” sources — which all meshes with the information Erici has been posting here.
I think we are clear on what is brewing, why the unanswered questions etc. Now we need to see our way clear to creative solutions.
Good – always good to check sources, Thanks for the check-up.
Best,
Linda
Right – like it’s always done, the Tea Party picks up on existing memes, science, lies, distortions — nothing original. So let’s keep tracking this down. We have an article below suggesting that the methane issue in the Gulf of Mexico is an old one.
To repeat, though — without any biblical methane, we have a series issue, which is a petrol-Corexit brew that will diffuse into every salt water body in the world, over time.
Eric maybe the chart needs to be analyzed against the oil industry chart, if there is such a thing, instead of the USA chart. Seems to me this is a global event, not a USA event, especially in light of everything else we know about BP. Maybe it is just a BP event, not an overall oil industry event. I read that even Halliburton advised BP against some of the engineering shortcuts they took.
ps, very interesting from the astrological point of view Eric.
I have no idea how to understand charts for mundane events, so your explanation is v. helpful. GG
MUST ADD — I sent the link for the Helium story to my friend and he wisely googled the author.
He discovered that Terrence Aym is a Tea Party nut. Check out the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Terrence-Aym/100000156360283
After all, don’t you Eric all the time cite aspects involving minor planets and newly discovered objects — things that no astrologer knew to think about 30 years ago?
Nowhere have I ever said that the new discoveries in any way rendered past astrology invalid.
To the contrary — at any given time in history, we have the astrological resources and tools to respond to the moment. (I often feel, though, that it would have been nice if astrologers in the 60s had a clue that Chiron in Pisces was opposite the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo, though it was precisely that spiritual piece that was missing from the response of many people at the time to the 1960s.) Still, today we are working with hundreds of minor planets, some of which we know are highly significant, and we could look at this event through their lens. One longterm event involving major discoveries of new planets Varuna square Eris. One clue that this was involved is that the Sun passed through the square in the days that the announcement of the well cap and integrity test were being made. Check this link at Tracy’s site (it’s a calculation function so it takes a few moments to load) and go to the bottom of the scroll and check the dates of those events.
We are right in the middle of this one. Varuna has mythological associations with water and Eris has mythological associations with global mayhem. But as you can see this square has happened before, so this would not be the only factor in determining the scale of this event. And we don’t know everything we need to know about a these points; that knowledge base takes years to develop, and depends on studying events such as this one. As it works out, the Cancer Moon in the Deepwater Horizon blowout chart is conjunct Varuna, square Eris. That points to this aspect as meaningful, but the next meaningful thing is the question of where we go from there.
That said, charts say essentially the same thing, no matter what planetary set we use. This is a holographic property of astrology. It is essential that astrologers who aspire to use minor planets learn how to use charts with only traditional planets first, or concurrently. Certainly a chart for event that sets off a mass die-off of many species is not sitting around waiting for a planetary discovery to be announced, which would be ignored by most (nearly all) astrologers anyway.
You can remove all the asteroids and minor planets, and read the seven basic points used by the Hellenistic Greeks, and you have the same basic information. Try it with your own chart, or an event chart, and see. Minor planets add layers of spiritual and psychological detail that help clarify matters, most often on an individual level. Sometimes removing planets makes the chart easier to read, and I will give that a go.
Chart factors that we would be looking at to determine the scope of this event involve things like the mundane angles — that is, what is happening in the angular houses — 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th. They would involve the ascendant ruler, the Sun and Moon and other basic factors as well, which would be in the current version of the chart. I am not saying that I have the talent to read any chart — I have admitted a number of times that this is a confounding chart, or it seems so at the moment.
In my initial reading in early May, I was unable to render a judgment whether this event was terrorism, sabotage, accident or incompetence. This may be due to my inability to read the chart, which we would have to consider in the context of 15 years of reading news charts, with professional training in mundane astrology. Factors here may include aspects of my consciousness interfering with my reading, insufficient experience, the whole matter in some way being cloaked (or some other form of fraud), or this chart not being for the real event. However, such a case as a “wrong chart” there is plenty of astrological experience which suggests that even that chart will point to real information. For more information about that, see a chapter called “When the Wrong Chart Works,” in a book called The Moment of Astrology by Geoff Cornelius (ca 1995). This covers (among other things) the two birth charts of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
What we need to remember here is that while there may not be a methane bubble that blows up/tsunamis three states and sends us back to prehistoric days, even with what has happened so far we have a global-scale cataclysm on our hands that we are not responding to as such. I heard about a recent poll — of course, mainstream media — that said 7% of Americans consider this the #1 news issue now. The economy, another manipulated story, has been taking over.
We need to see these events, going back to the Sept. 11 incident, in the widest possible perspective. They are part of one story, which is the oil endgame and all the rearranging of economics and geopolitics that this involves. In many ways the history of the 20th and early 21st century is the history of oil. One chart I’ve looked for but have not been able to find is that of the first oil gusher, in Pennsylvania. That chart can be found down to a range of about three days, and if anyone can find a reference to the exact date of that oil well, I would be grateful.
Meanwhile, let’s keep looking at this chart and get a real conversation going about it. The information we need is very likely there there.
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/bp-oil.jpg
Well said, Graffitti, thanks.
Well it MIGHT be in the chart but we just can’t see it.
After all, don’t you Eric all the time cite aspects involving minor planets and newly discovered objects — things that no astrologer knew to think about 30 years ago?
However, I am not much for dwelling too long on the possibily of apocalyptic events. I grew up in the bible belt among people who let such thinking cut off all avenues of creativity and possibility in their lives.
It’s dangerous stuff, frankly, this nihilist thinking. It’s one thing to try to become aware so that you can prepare yourself for possible events, and it’s another thing entirely to give into black despair.
It makes you vulnerable to all kinds of possible manipulation and deception.
We ought to be thinking of ways to clean up the oceans and save them and the life inside them, not thinking about how they’re going to lead us to “the end.”
If it’s the end, there’s nothing you can do about it anyway. Better to focus on ways to reinvent hope.
some good soundtrack to this crisis:
Reflection Eternal – ‘Ballad of the Black Gold’
http://vimeo.com/12982709
(doesn’t mention the methane, but does give a good view of the situation)
Gulf Oil Gusher: Danger of Tsunamis From Methane?
London, UK – 21st June 2010, 11:55 GMT
Dear ATCA Open & Philanthropia Friends
[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]
Updated with a References section on June 24th, 2010 at 23:30 BST:
A new and less well known asymmetric threat has surfaced in the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher. Methane or CH4 gas is being released in vast quantities in the Gulf waters. Seismic data shows huge pools of methane gas at the location immediately below and around the damaged “Macondo” oil well. Methane is a colourless, odourless and highly flammable substance which forms a major component in natural gas. This is the same gas that blew the top off Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 people. The “flow team” of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas, which primarily contains methane, is being released into the Gulf waters with every barrel of oil. The constant flow of over 50,000 barrels of crude oil places the total daily amount of natural gas at over 145 million cubic feet. So far, over 8 billion cubic feet may have been released, making it one of the most vigorous methane eruptions in modern human history. If the estimates of 100,000 barrels a day — that have emerged from a BP internal document — are true, then the estimates for methane gas release might have to be doubled.
Tsunami: Low Probability High Impact Event
Warnings
Older documents indicate that the subterranean geological formation below the “Macondo” well in the Gulf of Mexico may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit. It has been a well known fact that the methane in that oil deposit was problematic. As a result, there was a much higher risk of a blow out. Macondo shares its name with the cursed town in the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by the Nobel-prize winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
By some geologists’ estimates, the methane could be a massive bubble trapped for thousands of years under the Gulf of Mexico sea floor. More than a year ago, geologists expressed alarm in regard to BP and Transocean putting their exploratory rig directly over this massive underground reservoir of methane. Warnings were raised before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that the area of seabed chosen might be unstable and inherently dangerous.
Methane and Poison Gas Bubble
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found high concentrations of gases in the Gulf of Mexico area. The escape of other poisonous gases associated with an underground methane bubble — such as hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride — have also been found. Recently, the EPA measured hydrogen sulfide at more than 1,000 parts per billion (ppb) — well above the normal 5 to 10 ppb. Some benzene levels were measured near the Gulf of Mexico in the range of 3,000 to 4,000 ppb — up from the normal 0 to 4 ppb. Benzene gas is water soluble and is a carcinogen at levels of 1,000 ppb according to the EPA. Upon using a GPS and depth finder system, experts have discovered a large gas bubble, 15 to 20 miles wide and tens of feet high, under the ocean floor. These bubbles are common. Some even believe that the rapid release of similar bubbles may have caused the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle.
50,000 to 100,000 PSI
The intractable problem is that this methane, located deep in the bowels of the earth, is under tremendous pressure. Experts agree that the pressure that blows the oil into the Gulf waters is estimated to be between 30,000 and 70,000 pounds per square inch (psi). Some speculate that the pressure of the methane at the base of the well head, deep under the ocean floor, may be as high as 100,000 psi — far too much for current technology to contain. The shutoff valves and safety measures were only built for thousands of psi at best. There is no known device to cap a well with such an ultra high pressure.
Oxygen Depletion
The crude oil from the “Macondo” well, which is damaging the Gulf of Mexico, contains around 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits. Scientists warn that gases such as methane, hydrogen sulfide and benzene, along with oil, are now depleting the oxygen in the water and are beginning to suffocate marine life creating vast “dead zones”. As small microbes living in the sea feed on oil and natural gas, they consume large amounts of oxygen which they require in order to digest food, ie, convert it into energy. There is an environmental ripple effect: when oxygen levels decrease, the breakdown of oil can’t advance any further.
Fissures or Cracks
According to geologists, the first signs that the methane may burst its way through the bottom of the ocean would be manifest via fissures or cracks appearing on the ocean floor near the path of least resistance, ie, the damaged well head. Evidence of fissures opening up on the seabed have been captured by the robotic midget submarines working to repair and contain the ruptured well. Smaller, independent plumes have also appeared outside the nearby radius of the bore hole. When reviewing video tapes of the live BP feeds, one can see in the tapes of mid-June that there is oil spewing up from visible fissions. Geologists are pointing to new fissures and cracks that are appearing on the ocean floor.
Fault Areas
The stretching and compression of the earth’s crust causes minor cracking, called faults, and the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has many such fault areas. Fault areas run along the Gulf of Mexico and well inland in Mexico, South and East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the extreme western Florida Panhandle. The close coupling of new fissures and cracks with natural fault areas could prove to be lethal.
Bubble Eruption
A methane bubble this large — if able to escape from under the ocean floor through fissures, cracks and fault areas — is likely to cause a gas explosion. With the emerging evidence of fissures, the tacit fear now is this: the methane bubble may rupture the seabed and may then erupt with an explosion within the Gulf of Mexico waters. The bubble is likely to explode upwards propelled by more than 50,000 psi of pressure, bursting through the cracks and fissures of the sea floor, fracturing and rupturing miles of ocean bottom with a single extreme explosion.
Cascading Catastrophe Scenarios
1. Loss of Buoyancy
Huge methane gas bubbles under a ship can cause a sudden buoyancy loss. This causes a ship to tilt adversely or worse. Every ship, drilling rig and structure within a ten mile radius of the escaping methane bubble would have to deal with a rapid change in buoyancy, causing many oil structures in its vicinity to become unstable and ships to sink. The lives of all the workers, engineers, coast guard personnel and marine biologists — measuring and mitigating the oil plumes’ advance and assisting with the clean up — could be in some danger. Therefore, advanced safety measures should be put in place.
2. First Tsunami with Toxic Cloud
If the toxic gas bubble explodes, it might simultaneously set off a tsunami travelling at a high speed of hundreds of miles per hour. Florida might be most exposed to the fury of a tsunami wave. The entire Gulf coastline would be vulnerable, if the tsunami is manifest. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia might experience the effects of the tsunami according to some sources.
3. Second Tsunami via Vaporisation
After several billion barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of gas have been released, the massive cavity beneath the ocean floor will begin to normalise, allowing freezing water to be forced naturally into the huge cavity where the oil and gas once were. The temperature in that cavity can be extremely hot at around 150 degrees celsius or more. The incoming water will be vaporised and turned into steam, creating an enormous force, which could actually lift the Gulf floor. According to computer models, a second massive tsunami wave might occur.
Conclusion
The danger of loss of buoyancy and cascading tsunamis in the Gulf of Mexico — caused by the release of the massive methane and poisonous gas bubble — has been a much lower probability in the early period of the crisis, which began on April 20th. However, as time goes by and the risk increases, this low probability high impact scenario ought not to be ignored, given that the safety and security of the personnel involved remains paramount. Could this be how nature eventually seals the hole created by the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher?
I had a conversation with my son about this business this afternoon. Neither too short, neither too long – because we agreed on the point that any one of us could be dead on the morrow. And, in fact, many will be. SO one cannot live in fear of that fact. However, we also agreed that it’s sort of odd that humans would generally be appalled at the idea of our species becoming extinct – as so many species have already, as we have witnessed.
On another note, I had quite the woosh when Eric placed side by side a description of the heaving at the bottom of the Gulf with being conscious of our internal business: the methane bubble inside of us… I was rather stunned to realize that how I have been experiencing life these past weeks can be precisely described in the same language as the fissures and cracks and leaks and bubble… Though, in retrospect, I’m not surprised at all.
As for the orgy, would the Arctic be the best place to have it? I was thinking when everyone’s played out and before the scorch comes to melt the snow, we could all fall asleep peacefully on a snow hill. But that assumes the bubble bursts between October and March. Meh. I’m being morbid now.
Anywho, if anyone stuck a big-assed pipe through my innards I’d probably have a few issues with that. I’m very curious to see how this story of us humans unfolds. Meanwhile, I’m going to meditate on quieting my personal bubble and the larger one if she is there.
Best to all.
abc123:
yes.
and no.
but resounding “yes”. The outlines may be similiar, but this story’s potential outcome is vastly different.
I think the main reason we should consider them the SAME is that in each instance we need to address the situation as REAL and becoms aware, informed and ready to take appropriate action if needed.
A quick shrug of the shoulders aka apathy will not be useful no matter what the “story”.
Sarah,
I agree – I think that while BP has underhanded motives, I think there are other people involved – one of them being Obama – who understand what can happen if news “blows out” and people panic. Better to use the media’s desire for “negative output” as a tool to keep people calmer than they would be if they knew what was really being worked out.
But there are people too, who Need to Know what is going on – people who can be made safe and people who can help.
I hope we find balance on this point as well.
xo
Insert Y2K or H1N1. Does the story change?
or maybe I misunderstood Saturn’s movement/s…..I’m getting a little jumbled this weekend.
Hm.
Well, back to other things.
if anyone is interested, there are a number of committed citizen reporters uploading regular informative content to youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/pcolagregg
http://www.youtube.com/jamescfox
http://www.youtube.com/projectgulfimpact
http://www.youtube.com/user/pcolagregg#p/u/66/5zQydQB7TOQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectGulfImpact#p/u/0/1FxfYqnlQ50
I don’t think there is any questioning of the scientific evidence reported in many places and contexts that there is Methane Gas leaking in the Gulf – and that BP aggitated it – beginning with the high content of methane in the oil.
Did anyone notice that the methane leakage came to (broader) light just as Saturn moved from Virgo to Libra (air = gas)?
Hi guys, Pat Thomas here. Gosh…I sent that article to Eric early this morning, London time, in response to his original post, then went about my Saturday chores without thinking much of it again til now. What a trip to see my name at PW! There are other articles on the methane bubble and I suggest we all read them to get familiar with the facts as best we can (here’s an alarming video too, showing the oil seeping from cracks in the seabed floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2RxIQP0IBU).
The article I sent Eric provided some theory (now we just need some transparency from BP and the government so we can see if the theory might be true) and gives some good links to the main players who are speaking out, in spite of cautions not to, which is always helpful. I’m also less interested in the doomsday scenarios, which I suspect are exaggerated (GHG’s generally take along time to produce effects, though tonnes of methane released into the atmosphere is certainly bad news), though a tsunami is a possibility and the people on the Gulf Coast are at risk from all kinds of noxious exposures sincce the Gulf has been a veritable dumping ground for years. But I share Eric’s interest in toxic chemicals and freedom of the press and and personal responsibility. And also his belief that we cannot look at these issues in sterile isolation. We must take a holistic view that encompasses psychology, spirituality and culture, and ‘read’ such events as much for their symbolism as for their ‘facts’. Which is why I love PW!
The gulf disaster is a big story not just because it is an environmental disaster but because it pushes so many of our personal/cultural buttons at once. It has brought us hard up against some of the worst that humans can be (arrogant, careless, greedy) and also our own helplessness, this time at the hands of big corporates AS WELL AS nature. The methane bubble brings a potential new dimension, our own mortality. It asks us to broaden our emotional response to the disaster to include compassion for ourselves and our fellow humans, as well as the dolphins and the turtles and the other life forms in and around the Gulf. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. How self-hating do we have to be before we say ‘enough!’ and start to turn things around?
Now about that orgy…
To add to that …
If there is methane in the Gulf, and if, indeed, we are to question it in the context of a larger spiritual meaning, and if our perceptions shape our reality … Well then maybe a government and corporate cover-up is integral to our future safety. Imagine what a shift in perception could achieve if this hit the headlines worldwide.
Not everything bad is bad. Not everything good is good.
For what it’s worth. Another perspective to counter the direction of “aggregate sentiment”:
http://io9.com/5585294/methane-bubble-doomsday-story-debunked
“For several days, bloggers and journalists have been passing around a news story about how the BP oil disaster will unleash a “giant methane bubble” and initiate a mass extinction. Yes, it’s a myth. And we’ve busted it. …”
Hi Eric, thanks for your piece today (and all the pieces you do). Very alarming.
did you the info below. The fact that it is so difficult to get access to the site and some global info is alarming too.
Check on whatdoesitmean.com (I know it can be crazy stuff but sometimes also right on). it is exactly that: so difficult to navigate reality right now. The separation in consciousness is more and more extreme. As if the Matrix was becoming almost more and more obvious. I
like David Icke stance lately about the nature of reality as in “human race get of your knees” a video posted on project camelot.
May be the 60ies were an awakening into another reality through drugs. the east coming to west, sexual freedom and we are now embarked on a bigger awakening into an alternate reality, a separation of the veils. I think we look at the charts of the events and try to find what is going on but what is going on is in the subtle realms I feel.
And most people don’t feel it because there are so many distractions. The theme of some irreversible crack into something of the earth, a boundary that have been trespassed. That will bring us into death (or a new reality) the under sea world. I would like to find some mythology on that. Hades…. I don’t know. I will look. Here it is hades means also the unseen. Interesting that before the “solidearth” was ruled by Gaia…the feminine again
Just thoughts
best
BTW – Dr. Termotto has a wonderful closing statement which I have cut/pasted below for those who might not be inclined to read the article at URL (I have not researched this author BTW) Also interesting to look at are the links Dr. Termotto provides within the article.
Here’r his closing thoughts:
“On a positive note, it is very good to maintain the awareness that our collective consciousness has considerable influence on all that happens in the Gulf. The elements are quite responsive to our collective thoughts and ideas, feelings and emotions, intentions and motivations. We do co-create the future of the Gulf with each thought and feeling, so why not become a part of the solution.
Gas (and air), being more subtle and refined than the other elements, are also very impressionable and therefore more easily influenced by the aggregate sentiments of humanity. Positive thought, hopeful feeling and pure intention will produce favorable outcomes the more deeply they are felt and sustained over time. There has never been a more important time to resolve ourselves – each and every one of us – to contribute to the highest possible good for the Gulf of Mexico.
by Dr. Tom Termotto , Co-Founder, Concerned Citizens of Florida”
http://www.fwii.net/profiles/blogs/dire-realities-of-the-gulf-of
DIRE REALITIES OF THE GULF OF MEXICO METHANE GAS CONUNDRUM
Posted by Dr. Tom Termotto on June 25, 2010 at 6:30pm
I had originally become interested in methane gas when I read an article about how people stomping their own homemade wine occasionally fall over dead when jumping into the vat.
Google will reveal stories of small towns keeling over and a dairy farm in Indiana that recently had to releaes tension from a huge balloon that had formed over the cowshit from their farm – many other stories of methane gas deaths are related to contemporary dairy farming in America.
And the scientific idea that it’s actually methane gas bubbles that cause ships and planes to “suddenly disapear” in the “burmuda triangle” area is totally palatable.
Anyway, exciting folklore of triangles aside – I believe we have created several forms of Methane gas distress with modern trade ideas (mass production) and without considering how technology can help us to alleviate toxic effects of our creative endeavors.
If we’re gonna have that many cows in one place – and if they’re gonna shit – then we need to have a better form of release for the gas produced.
While we may not have created the methane under the gulf (nor did we, I suppose directly create the cow-shit) we certainly have helped to release it – I am currently reading about how methane gas can adequately be dispersed – not because I’m a scientist or environmentalist or oil rig owner or dairy farmer – but because I can focus my attention on solutions to a problem that existed before we became aware of the GUlf Floor.
xo
I know this has nothing to do with this methane gas, but I DO want to point out the European News on CNN last night. Deception in all of it’s shame. BP had the “Lockerby Scotland Bomber” put on a freedom list. Truth! Then now comes the swindling, his sickness of pancreatic cancer was diagnosed as terminal and only three months to live. However, after his sympathic release from Officials in Scotland. Now 10 months later the man is still alive in Lybia. However here is the deal. After his release BP secured a multimillion dollar deal from guess who – you guessed right Lybia.
Now as it was stated last night BP is now going to Abu-Da-Bi government to secure another deal. Stating that they have already paid billions to the U.S. Government for the Gulf’s major oil spill. Abu-Da-Bi is the only country with a Trillion dollar surplus, and I do believe that Abu-Da-Bi will yes indeed bail out BP in the form of dtricking another deal. Is this all this company cares about is deal’s. Puts the Lockerby Scotland Bomber on active release availability. Kills their own employees in the Texas Fire Blow Up. Now the Gulf. I do believe this company has NOT learned anything from stiff fines brought on by lawsuits from the Federal Government. This company just does not care about humanity at all. Their stockholders are more important than anyone’s life. Greed is still their theme and human life just does not count. Incredible!!!
Sorry, I meant raises the temp. of the ocean floor rather than drops it.
ellin
Re: I am left wondering a few things. One is how a methane bubble can push up seven miles of bedrock, under a mile of water. Another is what this has to do with the well blowout, which seems like a normal enough blowout except for the depth. How did the blowout cause the presumed bubble? Was it by disturbing the pressure down there? The third is the relationship between the hole in the sea floor through which all the other oil is supposedly gushing, and the whole sea floor rising up like there’s a gas bubble.
I think the answer to this has to do with the heat, rather than the pressure on the bedrock and water.
It seems that methane exists in a frozen state; some scientists describe it like frozen seltzer. I think of it like dry ice before it comes into the air. Methane is the largest creation of greenhouse gases in the world. methane is released.
I imagine that in addition to the warmth which may have a natural effect on the release of gas, surely penetration of the ocean floor’s crust where the drilling is deep enough to hit one of these methane deposits the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere will further warm the gasses.
Referring to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, a methane-rich area that encompasses more than 2 million square kilometers of seafloor, it was thought that the shelf was an impermeable barrier sealing in the methane, but “The amount of methane currently coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world’s oceans,” said Shakhova, a researcher at UAF’s International Arctic Research Center. “Subsea permafrost is losing its ability to be an impermeable cap.”
Methane is more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. It is released from previously frozen soils in two ways. When the organic material (which contains carbon) stored in permafrost thaws, it begins to decompose and, under anaerobic conditions, gradually releases methane. Methane can also be stored in the seabed as methane gas or methane hydrates and then released as subsea permafrost thaws. These releases can be larger and more abrupt than those that result from decomposition. The previous 2 paragraphs are from Physicstoday.org.
How I interpret all of this is that the release of methane has a cannibalizing effect. Heat releases it which further heats the atmosphere which drops the temperature of the the ocean floor which heats the methane, anon. In addition the drilling, when deep enough, jeopardizes the impermability of the earth’s cap.
When the area of bubbles (think 2 million square kilometers) becomes great enough we can expect a complete breakthrough of the floor and thus a tsunami.
Just a thought. ellin
I’m gonna share,.. I think trade is a resource that we all share. ..
..skip, jump, (whatever we call it)..
..I’m here to trip with you..
..I know that the B.P. b.s., is B.S.. These cats are concerned about money/profit/..call it what you will..
..You, I, we’re concerned about a broader spectrum of events. “The basic level of interacting on a basis of mutual co-creation.”
..These cats b.s. us all day long..
..I’ve almost got my shit straight.. anyone else?..?
Smiling, Jere
It does explain a lot (like why there was so much to-do getting the well capped (it was clearly a diversion tactic but we couldn’t figure out what the point was), why the level of secrecy, why nuclealr bombing was being discussed etc.)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20131
I vote for holding the Orgy in Canada.
I vote for the Orgy:) Sounds like a good idea for this weekend-Carl Callemann’s Conscious Convergence is happening all over planet too……Will be interested to see what he has to say about this link in the unraveling Mayan mystery chain….
Aloha folks,
Victoria
I repeat myself from another post – “Atlantis” was not about technology it was about Trade. This is about Trade. Trade has not united people per our human myth – it disengaged us. (That is, we did not use Trade to unite people, overall we have used it poorly.)
It is Technology founded in the Uniting of People that will assist us in continuing on from here. Or Technology used to Create “something” that necessarily Can unite people – like choosing to try to use a nuclear warhead to create an ice dome over a methane bubble.
I’ve said too much for this little fish tonight.
We have much to learn – quickly.
xo
P.S. Yellowstone. The one where Yogi Bear lives.
Also, I suppose this ‘new story’ could be why I thought I saw (a vision of) two huge fiery gushers rising from the Gulf last week on the news (there was no such news last week…….so I began praying that what I had seen would not come to pass – or rather, began praying for a Great Big Orgy for no apparent reason whatsoever except that we are all safe and sound and living in joy and love).
Suffocation by Methane does NOT turn me on. And yes, my rudimentary learning on this subject is all to recently to be funny- and tells me that the science of this concept is very very real – probably how ships and planes disapear in the Bermuda Triangle – we’ve known what Methane can do for a long time. If the bubble is this large and is not dealt with “properly” (here is where the new technological developments come into play) then – well, I hope we will all be breathing (sighs of relief).
I found this on the fly –
http://www.helium.com/items/1879683-methane-gas-explosion-in-the-gulf?page=2
i saw this theory posted a bit under a week ago and was kind of (to say the least) worried … but doing a google search on bp oil spill methane found some links discrediting the theory (and including a statement from the guy who was cited as having the theory about a previous extinction being based on methane, saying that he was not of the opinion that a methane thing had anything to do with the previous extinction which he had studied and theorized about in depth)
maybe they’re just trying to redirect our attention away from worrying about this, but could be the theory in the first place was full of holes (and not the ocean floor? but they didn’t mention, from what i saw, anything about the ‘facts on the ground’ about raised ocean floor and open fissures kms away from the spill site)
On another hand, I had somehow/way managed to not realize that all this time we’ve been talking about a 7-inch pipeline? That’s the joke, right? That this is all about a pipe that’s 7-inches in diameter?
“He said that the 7-inch pipe wasn’t responsible for the oil tearing apart the gulf. He also declared that it is not physically possible for that pipe to have released this much and BP knows it.”
I can’t imagine believing that a 7-inch diameter pipe could flood this much oil into the Gulf. So cum’on – how big is the pipe really? And/or how big is the “hole” really? And if there is a hole, then Eric’s previous discussion about old explosives dumped there starts to haunt the situation.
Eric – OL about your comment “wouldn’t it be a little too nice and nifty for humanity to just conveniently go extinct right at the moment” – wondering who’s planning to profit and how from THAT one.
Maybe the Mayans had a plan to return to earth and take over the riches gathered up by BP. Bad humor I know, but something’s gotta shake loose here soon in terms of the Truth.
If this is the biggie, why isn’t it somewhere in the chart for the event? I don’t claim to be able to see everything in an astrological chart, but if we had an extinction event in that event, or the first knock in a chain reaction that was about to cause one, it should show up in an obvious way.
I recognize that the cardinal T-square is every kind of intense and could indicate some massive changes; but it’s not like we haven’t had really intense astrology before, in the history of the United States. The T-square does not even come up angular in the chart of the oil well blowout. I invite anyone to add their comments about this chart.
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/bp-oil.jpg
And yes, we are in the throat of 2012, but wouldn’t it be a little too nice and nifty for humanity to just conveniently go extinct right at the moment of the New Age misinterpretation of a Mayan calendar event?
Huh.
I’ve been wondering about the reasons behind the lockdown on access to images & other info from the Gulf. Maybe this is the biggie.