Tiny Bubbles

[Stede]

If there wasn’t enough to be concerned about while sailing the ocean blue, the Discovery Channel recently aired a documentary on the Bermuda Triangle that gave one a different perspective of the ill fated voyages that have ended there. Most everyone is aware of the many ships, and planes that have been lost in the area. The most famous is probably the Navy aircraft flight 19. Five aircraft became hopelessly lost during a training mission off of the coast of Florida. It’s believed the planes “ditched” somewhere close to Great Abaco Island after running out of fuel while trying to return to Ft.Lauderdale.

Some scientists have developed a theory concerning what’s causing the strange occurrences in the Triangle. It seems there are large pockets of methane gas in the ocean floor of the area.By some scientific estimates, enough to fuel the U.S. for seventy years. When one of the pockets of methane erupts, the bubbles generated could displace enough water under a ship to sink it. The theory was tested in test tanks with model ships, and seemed to hold true. In the Discovery Channel broadcast, an experiment was also conducted on a piston driven aircraft engine, similar to the type used in the Navy “Avenger” aircraft that were lost in the Triangle. While the test engine was running, methane gas was slowly induced into it. Eventually, the methane gas caused the engine to completely shut down. It was calculated that a 1% accumulation of methane gas in the atmosphere would be enough volume to shut down a piston driven engine. What seems to be contradictory to this theory though is a recent find of five Navy “Avenger” aircraft on the sea floor within twelve miles of Ft.Lauderdale. All five are within 1-1/2 miles of one another, but are not the aircraft lost in the ill-fated flight 19 training mission. All were reported as “lost at sea” due to mechanical malfunctions,and each lost was recorded on a different date. There are no known large deposits of methane gas in the sea floor of the area. The largest deposits of methane gas known of are in the sea floor off the coast of NC.

It seems “tiny bubbles,” can cause big, big troubles.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence...tour/tour.html

[Jentine]

how disguised is still stinky.
I stopped believing all that the Discovery channel said as being the truth when I watched them loading shark cages on boats in the Bahamas for a "shark extravaganza". Those were the same sharks we had been diving with for the previous five days. The sharks were inquisitive, but not aggressive or dangerous. The Discovery folks made them out to be man eaters. So much for truth in television.

[Stede]

Gosh Jentine, you really popped my bubble (pun intended)
I guess next, you're going to tell me that professional wrestling isn't real either


Your mentioning of the shark thing made me think of a deal we got hooked up with on a dive boat out of Nassau. They took us to three different locations to snorkle. The first was a beautiful coral reef. The second, was a shipwreck. It was pretty cool! The third, was a place offshore where they had been baiting black tipped sharks. They're not suppose to be a very aggressive shark. Once the boat stopped, the first mate lowered a basket of fish heads ,and pieces down to about 30 ft. Within a few minutes, a bunch of sharks came in to feed. Now, here's the best part. After the sharks started feeding, we got to jump in and snorkle over top of them!! Yeah,..... I thought to myself, " I'm actually paying to do this? This is a new insanity for me." I had an underwater camera and got some pretty good pictures of the bigger sharks.

At first I thought the whole thing seemed like one of the "stupid pet tricks" you see on t.v. until everyone got back on board. Once everyone was safely on the fantail of the boat, the skipper came out with another bucket of fish parts, much larger than the first bucket. He would take a large fish head and hold it just above the water. The sharks would break the water to grab the fish head. It was then, that we got to see all the teeth. While the skipper was timing a perfect release of the fish head before his hand was taken with it, the first mate would lean over and try to grab the sharks fin and kind of partially wrestle him up on to the fantail. I tell you the truth, people get out of the way of a eight foot shark that's being pulled up on to the boat while chewing on a fish head!

Now, that's something you don't get to see on the Discovery Channel!

[BC Mike]

This has been reported elsewhere, National Geopraphic comes to mind, and I have mentioned it before on this site.
Michael

[captjohn360]

gee i guess my mom was right when she told me there would be big trouble if i kept makeing bubbles in the bathtub jt

[mario f]

Monster methane sinks ships
reports a research team in the North Sea
article

It is only sea FARTS

Besides if there were some validity to all these theories, I'm sure the insurance companies would have gotten wind of it(pun intended). As far as I know there is no increased premiums for navigating these areas.
So if they don't worry about it, maybe we should not worry either.

[Stede]

IMO, the theorem of erupting methane gas deposits causing ships to sink has some validity. In the Discovery Channels’ documentary, they showed some film footage of an offshore oil rig that had drilled into a gas deposit. The rig almost sank as large gas bubbles boiled the water underneath, and around the pylons of it. Also of interest in the documentary were the illustrations of the seabed contour. From the shallows off the coast of Florida, to the 30,000 foot deep Puerto Rican trench, the “hills and valleys” of the ocean floor contribute unruly fluid forces when there is a major disturbance in the seabed. Massive fluid motion moves through it all much like hitting a golf ball on a Putt-Putt course through the maze of “humps,” staged randomly in the path towards the hole.

There are also some flaws in the methane gas theorem. For instance, even though in test tanks model ships were sank while inducing large air volumes beneath them, the models were being held in a stationary position. How much effect would the eruption of a methane gas deposit have on a giant oil tanker traveling at 15-20 knots? There doesn’t seem to be any way of knowing.

The Discovery Channel broadcast on the subject was interesting to me. I thought it may be of some interest to sailors here, and possibly generate some discussion. Maybe some strange occurrences would be shared by sailors that have traveled through the Bermuda Triangle, or opinions offered on the methane gas theorem. About the only strange occurrence I’ve had sailing through the Triangle involved getting trapped into crewing for a retired IBM computer Geek. He helped develop a system called “OS2,” I believe it was. Apparently some guy named Bill Gates shot the system down when he introduced another system called “Windows.” The rest as they say “Is history.” Every time I mentioned something about “Windows,” the blood vessels would start to pop out on the skippers’ forehead.The rest of his head, all the way down to the base of his neck would turn an unusual color of crimson red. He would begin to rant and rave about Bill Gates, and how “OS2” is a superior operating system, etc, etc. I tried to reassure him that I knew he was correct in his assessment, each time I accidentally brought up the subject again, and again.

Every function on board was scrutinized by Mr.OS2. From measuring how much water was used to wash the dishes, to if wash rags were properly folded in the head, everything was inspected by him. It was as though I had entered a bad episode of the “Twilight Zone” and couldn’t get out. It was really quite maddening, and scary. But yet, some how I didn’t suffer any serious, adverse long term effect…effects from the experience. The voyage was back during my heavy rum drinking days. For that, I’m thankful.

Reported strange occurrences other than neurotic computer Geeks skippering boats through the Bermuda Triangle won’t keep me from sailing there. I figure the odds of a methane gas pocket taking me out is probably less than the possibility of hitting a submerged object. I just find these types of things about the ocean fascinating. The ocean is a last frontier. A lot is known about it, but there’s also a lot that isn’t.

I saw that same program. Could be. Who knows. Might be aliens. Who knows. More likely killer storms. Who knows. The dead ain't talkin.
Or are they?
I believe that the science on this one is good, but approached very poorly. I guess the only answer is to make it a sailing destination and see what happens.

[CaptainK]

Maybe the US government has a secret underwater base out there.
And maybe that's their way of chasing outsiders out, away from them?
Maybe the US government are doing weird scientific underwater experiments out there. Reminds me of the Philadelphia Experiment!!