Metals that are active catalysts for methane (Ni, Pt, Pd), when dissolved in inactive low-melting temperature metals (In, Ga, Sn, Pb), produce stable molten metal alloy catalysts for pyrolysis of methane into hydrogen and carbon. All solid catalysts previously used for this reaction have been deactivated by carbon deposition. In the molten alloy system, the insoluble carbon floats to the surfac...

Coastal methane hydrate deposits are globally abundant. There is a need to understand the deep sediment sourced methane energy contribution to shallow sediment carbon relative to terrestrial sources and phytoplankton. Shallow sediment and porewater samples were collected from Atwater Valley, Texas-Louisiana Shelf, Gulf of Mexico near a seafloor mound feature identified in geophysical surveys as...

We present a mechanistic model for the distribution of methane clathrate in marine sediments, and use it to predict the sensitivity of the steady-state methane inventory to changes in the deep ocean. Themethane inventory is determined by binning the seafloor area according to water depth, temperature, and O2 concentration. Organic carbon rain to the seafloor is treated as a simple function of w...

The presented software application allows GUI-based access to the bubble dissolution model presented by McGinnis et al. [McGinnis, D.F., Greinert, J., Artemov, Y., Beaubien, S.E., Wüest, A., 2006. The fate of rising methane bubbles in stratified waters: what fraction reaches the atmosphere? Journal of Geophysical Research 111, C09007. doi:10.1029/2005JC003183]. It quantifies the dissolution of ...

Here we describe a new reaction-transport model that quantitatively examines δ13C profiles of porewater methane and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (δCCH4 and δCDIC) in the anoxic sediments of the Santa Barbara Basin (California Borderland region). Best-fit solutions of the model to these data suggest that CO2 reduction is the predominant form of methanogenesis in these sediments. These soluti...