The professor worries that rising CO2 levels could drive enough warming to destabilize the Earth's clathrate reserves.
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In our world now, clathrates exist in Arctic permafrost and in the ocean near the continents.
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Another source could be icy subsurface clathrates, or molecular cages that harbour methane but can release it in bursts over time.
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The presence of clathrates, ice-like lattice structures that can trap gases, could just as easily explain what we see on the moon.
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Dubbed SCHLIP, for Submarine Clathrate Hydrate Landslide Imaging Project, the investigations continue and will involve drilling into the landslide during the next voyage.
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Some countries are trying to drill and exploit natural gashydrate (NGH).
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A lot of Earth's methane is trapped below the seabed as " gashydrate", an ice-like crystal of methane and water.
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The US launched a national research and development programme as far back as 1982, and by 1995 had completed its assessment of gashydrate resources.
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This expedition was part of a larger international project focusing on the interactions between gashydrates and slow-moving landslides.
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A buildup of slushy gashydrates stymied its first attempt at covering the rupture with a huge metal dome.
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When mud volcanoes erupt near gashydrates, the methane in the hydrates can escape, along with methane from deep underground.
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The problem is gashydrates, essentially slushy methane gas that would block the oil from being siphoned out the top of the box.
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The problem is with gashydrates, essentially slushy methane gas that would block the oil from being siphoned out the top of the box.