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America's Methane Mystery: NASA Set To Investigate Hotspot Over the 4 Corners
schwit writes A "hot spot" of the largest concentration of methane seen over the United States is in the area near the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah and covers 2,500 square miles. The hotspot predates widespread fracking in the area. Researchers from several institutions are now in the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest with a suite of airborne and ground-based instruments, aiming to uncover reasons for a mysterious methane "hot spot" detected from space. "With all the ground-based and airborne resources that the different groups are bringing to the region, we have the unique chance to unequivocally solve the Four Corners mystery," said Christian Frankenberg, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, who is heading NASA's part of the effort.
Coal bed methane, that is in the cracks and pores of coals, is old, old and well known thing.
Yeah. It's even mentioned in TFA:
This indicates the methane emissions should not be attributed to fracking but instead to leaks in natural gas production and processing equipment in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the country.
'The results are indicative that emissions from established fossil fuel harvesting techniques are greater than inventoried,' Kort said.
Methane is neither the principal part of a fart nor the smelly part. It's odorless. In fact, it's one of three odorless gases which make up roughly 98% of flatulence, with nitrogen and CO2.
The other 2% is a widely varied mix of esters, sulfides and ketones that depends on what you eat, and that's what provides the inimitable social character.
The "natural gas" that your stove burns is methane, and your gas company deliberately adds a stinky substance to it so you'll know when you have a leak.
look it up, they were for both methane and CO detection. They were used in UK until 1987!