Fire Ice Beneath the Sea: A Vast Methane Reserve Too Difficult to Exploit
Deep beneath the ocean floor lies methane hydrate, a.k.a. fire ice, that can ignite when released and may hold roughly twice the carbon of all Earth’s fossil fuels, yet extracting it is not economically feasible today. Most deposits sit in deep, stable conditions, with Arctic-edge zones potentially destabilizing as temperatures rise and releasing potent greenhouse gas. The article emphasizes the resource’s enormous size but practical extraction barriers, a contrast to Titan’s methane seas that are abundant yet unusable on Earth due to lack of oxygen.