Q34. Which of the following statements are correct about the deposits of ‘methane hydrate’?
- Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
- Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in the Arctic Tundra and under the seafloor.
Methane in the atmosphere oxidizes to carbon dioxide after a decade or two. Select
the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: D
- Statement 1 is correct: Methane hydrate is a crystalline solid that consists of a methane molecule surrounded by a cage of interlocking water molecules. Methane hydrate is an “ice” that only occurs naturally in subsurface deposits where temperature and pressure conditions are favorable for its formation. As Global Warming led to rise in temperature therefore it might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
- Statement 2 is correct: Methane hydrates tend to form along the lower margins of continental slopes, where the seabed drops from the relatively shallow shelf, usually to about 150 meters below the sea surface. The susceptibility of gas hydrates to warming climate depends on the duration of the warming event, their depth beneath the seafloor or tundra surface, and the amount of warming required to heat sediments to the point of dissociating gas hydrates.
- Statement 3 is correct: The problem with methane is that it does not vanish without a trace, even though it remains in the atmosphere relatively briefly, 10 years on average. In the presence of free oxygen, a methane molecule’s single atom of carbon disengages from its four hydrogen atoms to become carbon dioxide.
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