Sentence examples for methane is locked from inspiring English sources
And at depths below 300 metres, methane is locked away in cages of water molecules.
The gas is methane hydrate, a sherbet-like substance consisting of methane trapped in water ice – sometimes called "fire ice" or MH – that is locked deep underwater or under permafrost by the cold and under pressure 23 times that of normal atmosphere.
In some cases, the joint is locked using a drop lock, spring loaded lock, cam lock, ball lock, dial lock or a plunger type of lock.
However, with the melting of Arctic sea ice and permafrost, the huge stores of methane that have been locked away underground for many thousands of years might be released over a relatively short period of time, Dr Shakhova said.
The melting of the permafrost would release carbon stored for many years underground, causing the sort of "feedback loop" that has concerned climate scientists: as warming temperatures melt ice in the Arctic region, carbon and methane that has been locked away for thousands of years is being released, thereby fueling more warming and melting.
Where this methane came from matters because, at the moment, something between 2 trillion and 8 trillion tonnes of methane is thought to be locked up in under-sea clathrates.
In addition, large amounts of gas are locked into methane hydrates in cold polar and undersea regions, and gas is also present dissolved or entrained in hot geopressured formation waters.
Enormous quantities of natural gas are estimated to be locked up in so-called methane hydrates, which are unusual molecular structures in which single methane molecules are encased in icy cagelike lattices of water molecules.
Large volumes of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - could be locked beneath the ice-covered regions of Antarctica, according to a new study.
