Ian MacDonald/NOAA |

Methane Time Bomb?
Orange gas hydrate is shown hosting a species of marine worm. This lobe of hydrate was found in the Gulf of Mexico. New analysis of ancient ice cores from Antarctica's Lake Vostok suggest that lowered sea levels could have rendered such frozen hydrates unstable and led to huge releases of methane. That, in turn, warmed the planet. Gas hydrates today may also be unstable due to warming ocean temperatures.

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