Frozen methane found of Southern California.

The article reports on a potentially large undersea deposit of frozen methane at the summit of a mud volcano on the northern slope of Santa Monica Basin in California based on a routine core sample. The area lies on an active fault zone and the methane hydrate is buried just under the surface. Geologist James Hein concluded that the aragonite shells, of two bivalve species recovered from the sample, used carbon derived from anaerobically oxidized methane to construct their shells. He said that the hydrate deposit is alarming on an environmental viewpoint because methane and hydrogen sulfide are venting at the seafloor above the hydrate and any change of status of the deposit could destabilize the ocean floor and generate a tsunami or could raise atmospheric temperatures.