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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Webster suspects that reservoirs of methane lie deep under the surface of Mars, perhaps in water crystals called clathrates, and leak the gas continuously.