Quote:
Originally Posted by Sabine Gallais
|
I have not been able to find a single reputable (read peer reviewed) source that confirms this. Everything I have been able to find has been breathless writings on various blogs which, as far as I can tell, all appear to be referencing one another. All of those appear to be leading back to Richard C. Hoagland who, not to put too fine a point on it, has no real credibility given his penchant for "the moon landing never happened" conspiracy theories. I checked at the USGS (US Geological Survey) and could find nothing about this. I checked at SciAm and New Scientist *both* of which have scientists reporting from the field on this spill and while there are articles about methane seeping up through the water column, no mention of a giant tsunami that could kill large numbers of people.
I think that what is happening in this instance is that there is an echo-chamber effect--one person screams out on their blog WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! and then someone else, picking up that blog post writes on THEIR blog "some people are saying WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" and then someone reads that post and writes on THEIR blog "I'VE SEEN THIS IN TWO PLACES ON THE WEB. WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/se...&submit=submit
http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl...wat-2010-06-16
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ne-to-gauge-si
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-methane-study
I am NOT saying that it's impossible. I am saying that, at present, I have a hard time seeing any evidence for this event being at all likely (while still having a non-zero probability). The only people who appear to be saying that this kind of thing is likely to happen either aren't credentialed, won't cite their sources, or have a history of wild-eyed conspiracy mongering which seriously damages their credibility.
Cheers
Aj