The drilling danger of releasing giant bubbles of methane gas - The National

The "burps of death" are what can ensue when drillers mess with the planet's least accessible stores of natural gas.

The trouble with gas hydrates, as those ice-like deposits in the Arctic and under ocean beds are known, is that they lock up high concentrations of methane in a notoriously unstable crystalline lattice.

Change the temperature and pressure just a bit, and the whole thing collapses, releasing giant bubbles of potentially explosive methane gas in a fit of geological indigestion.

Some scientists theorise that a global firestorm resulting from one such outburst may have barbecued the dinosaurs. Another ancient oceanic burp, which did not ignite, may have triggered an equally lethal spurt of global warming linked to mass extinctions.