Explosive Methane Burst and Bubble Streams
During the recent GISR expedition, the team encountered a massive burst of methane from the Sleeping Dragon seep they were observing. The explosive burst was strong enough to eject rocks up on to the front deck of the ROV Hercules, some of which made it all the way back up to the surface when we recovered the vehicles.
GISR: Natural Gas Seeps in Gulf of Mexico
What impact do natural hydrocarbon seeps have on the ocean and atmosphere? This is one of the key questions we’ll be investigating on this leg of the expedition. This expedition is part of the Gulf Integrated Spill Response (GISR) Consortium, funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). The vision of the GISR Consortium is to understand and predict the fundamental behavior of petroleum fluids in the ocean environment.
