"Przemek Klosowski" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:10:10 -0400, Ed Huntress wrote:

"Azotic" wrote:

stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas-compressed by a
pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)

Well, I would like to see the source of that number.

Then look for it.

The oil is at 18000
ft, of which 5000 ft is water (1 g/cm3) and 13000 ft is rock (say 2.7 g/
cm3). From the simplistic 'column of stuff' argument, the pressure of oil
(0.5 g/cm3) at the sea bottom will be .448 [psi/ft] times (5000 ft +
13000 ft * (2.7-0.5)), which comes out to 15000 psi, which agrees with
what I have heard on the TV about the pressure of oil spurting from the
well head.

Why would gas be under dramatically different pressure? Rock is porous, so
if it wasn't equilibrated by the simple depth-related pressure, it would
diffuse away.

The articles claiming 1e5 psi tended to have alarmist titles like 'Gulf
disaster could kill millions' so my BS detector needle pegged on red.

Then check the facts. It's a lot easier than doing speculative calculations.

--
Ed Huntress