What causes the earth to create methane gas?

Question

I saw a show that said the ocean floor is already emitting methane gas, which goes up through the water as tiny bubbles until they reach the surface and release the methane into the atmosphere. But what makes the methane gas in the first place?

Answer 1

**Livestock animals naturally produce methane as part of their digestive process, belching it while chewing cud and excreting it in their waste. According to the Worldwatch Institute, about 15 to 20 percent of global methane emissions come from livestock. And the rate it is increasing, is unbelievable.  Now if we could just harness cow farts, and get our vehicles to run off that, we'd be set!..lol

Answer 2

This is a very good question and one that most geologists would be hard pressed to answer.  I assume they would suggest that methane from decomposition of biologic material gets dissolved into the ocean and then precipitates as methane hydrate on the sea floor (or slightly below).

On the earth, methane is assumed to be of biologic origins by most scientists. I think a better explanation is that much of  it is abiotic.  It probably comes from methane that was trapped in the original accretion (formation) of the earth that later seeped upwards through cracks and fissures.  The amount of methane that is stored in these methane hydrate deposits is truely huge.  This abiotic theory of methane formation also accounts for the formation of petroleum and high grade coal deposits.

Answer 3

nobody knows 4 sure, but i do know that everybody that farts is contributing 2 global warming because the methane worsens the atmosphere.