Tapping earth's upper-mantle methane gas resource at a nuclear drilling initiative area, Palk Bay, India/Sri Lanka

• Published in: Current science (Bangalore) 2007-03, Vol.92 (6), p.729-732
• Main Author: Cathcart, Richard B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Commercial energy; Drilling; Earth; Earth crust; Earth mantle; Energy resources; Geochemistry; Mantle; Marine; Methane; Mud; SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE
• ISSN: 0011-3891

Tapping methane from the earth's mantle and developing it as an energy resource agreeably shared by India and Sri Lanka, is a high-risk but possibly worthwhile economic endeavour. A new working definition of a 'gas field' will become necessary if the NDIA macroproject is successful. Abiotic methane gas tapping cannot be classified as a 'windfall' drawn from a fixed-for-all-time national territory endowment; rather, it is an ultimately undefinable renewable energy resource that can be accessed only by progressive R&D. Public investment in such R&D is a legitimate component of a forwardlooking India-Sri Lanka regional development programme. The earth's deepest 'gas field' must to be a target of exploitation for innovative exploration because the financial gain and technological advancements are extremely promising in a global sub-surface geological shell with enormous potential. Its vigorous exploitation cannot cause ground subsidence that sometimes is clear evidence - on the landscape and in the seafloor - of large-scale coal mining and petroleum/gas extractions. All post-1957 (Space Age) human science and technology may stimulate thoughts of resource accession using Adams' tool, an adaptation of Option II nuclear rock melting device, favouring inspired macroprojects in the crusts of other planets in the Solar System.