10,000 YEARS OF METHANE

"Gauging Gas Reserves" in Science Navs 151,p 111, February 15, 1997, reports that the first direct measurement of methane hydrate and free methane (in ocean floor sediment of the Blake Ridge off the coast of North Carolina) revealed 10 times the expected concentration of methane. A single 9,000 square mile section of this 35,000 square mile ridge has measured methane equivalent to 35 billion tons of carb- on - sufficient for 100 years of U.S. usage. Worldwide, methane hy- drate and free methane reserves are essentially inexhaustible.

Meanwhile, "An Fe(IV)2O2 Diamond Core Structure for the Key Intermediate Q of Methane Monooxygenase" by Shu, et. al., Science 275, pp 5 15-5 18, January 24,1997, reports the structure and functional states of the catalytic center for a bacterial enzyme that currently con- verts 1 billion tons of methane to methanol each year. (Lest we forget,Science reminds us in the page453 summary of this article that meth- ane is a "greenhouse gas.")