[extropy-chat] Witches Hole and the Bermuda Triangle

[Terry W. Colvin]

Forwarding permission was given by William R. Corliss.

Science Frontiers, No. 152, Mar-Apr, 2004, p. 3
< http://www.science-frontiers.com >

GEOLOGY

Witches Hole and the Bermuda Triangle

Witches Hole is a huge crater on the floor of the North Sea.  At its center
lies a sunken ship.  Witches Hole is not a meteor crater but rather the
crater left by a massive methane gas blowout.  A reasonable question asks
whether that ship in the center of the hole foundered when a huge bubble
of methane---a so-called "blowout"---enveloped it, or perhaps the vessel
sank in the low-density froth of a myriad of small methane bubbles.

Some studies by D.A. May and J.J. Monaghan suggest that giant methane burps
can indeed sink large ships.  They write:

   When the radius of a large bubble is comparable to or greater than
   the length of a ship's hull, we found both experimentally and via
   numerical simulations that it is possible for the bubble to cause
   the ship to sink.  Sinking arises because a mound of water is
   raised above the region where the bubble reaches the surface.  The
   deep trough on each side of the mound, and the flow from the mound
   can carry a boat into the trough.

(May, D.A., and Monaghan, J.J.; "Can a Single Bubble Sink a Ship?" *American
Journal of Physics*, 71:842, 2003)

Comments.  The danger of large methane releases on shipping due to loss of
buoyancy was recognized at least as far back as 1982. (SF#25) Today,
scientists are concerned that global releases of methane (a potent
greenhouse gas) from the gigantic deposits of methane hydrate along many
coastlines may have caused climate changes in the past and may do so again
in the future.

We should not ignore the fact that large areas of the sea floor in the
Bermuda Triangle are rich in methane hydrate!  Not only are ocean vessels
susceptible to methane burps but even aircraft flying through a major
methane release might be adversely affected.


[Science Frontiers is a bimonthly collection of digests of scientific
anomalies in the current literature.  Published by the Sourcebook Project,
P.O. Box 107, Glen Arm, MD 21057.  Annual subscription: $8.00.]


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


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