The Ice That Burns Beneath the Ocean

It looks like ice.

But there's a problem.

It contains methane.

And under the right conditions, you can actually light it on fire.

Deep beneath the ocean floor, pressure and temperature can force water molecules to form cage-like crystals around methane gas.

The result is methane hydrate—an extraordinary ice-like material that can hold a huge amount of gas inside a solid structure.

INTRO

Imagine sending a drilling operation hundreds of meters beneath the ocean.

The water above is cold.

The pressure is enormous.

And buried inside the sediment is something that looks almost exactly like ordinary ice.

But this isn't frozen water.

It's a crystal structure made from water molecules with methane trapped inside.

Methane hydrate.

And when that material reaches lower-pressure conditions near the surface, the structure can break apart and release the methane.

That's why samples can produce the bizarre effect known as "burning ice."

The ice isn't really the fuel.

The methane is.

The phrase "ice that burns" sounds like a contradiction.

But deep beneath the ocean, it's real.

Water creates the crystal structure.

Methane occupies the microscopic cages.

Pressure and temperature keep everything stable.

Change those conditions, and the structure breaks apart.

The methane escapes.

And if you give that gas an ignition source, it burns.

What looks like ice is actually one of Earth's strangest ways of storing natural gas.

Hidden beneath the ocean floor is a material that connects geology, chemistry, energy, oceanography, and climate science.

The ice that burns beneath the ocean.

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