Researchers claim to have unlocked the interaction patterns between the seabed fluctuations in the southwestern oceanic area of Taiwan, which is home to many underwater mud volcanoes, and the ebb and flow of tides.
A team from National Central University also discovered that during seabed fluctuations caused by changes in tides, methane gas is released into the water and atmosphere, which may be collected for energy resources or become greenhouse gas.
At a press conference at the National Science Council yesterday, Hsu Shu-kun (許樹坤), a professor of earth sciences at the university, said there are many mud volcanoes about 100m tall located 500m or more below the surface of the sea in that area.
Photo: Chen Yi-ching, Taipei Times
His council-funded team found that as the tide changes, the depth of the water also changes, leading to changing water pressure on the seabed.
When the tide is low, Hsu said, the water becomes shallower, reducing the water pressure on the seabed, whereupon methane clathrate (methane trapped within a crystal structure of water, in the form of a solid) under the seabed releases the methane component and is released from the more shallow parts of the seabed.
Hsu said the release of methane from the seabed about 500m underwater and the fluctuations of the seabed in connection with the changing tide work like a “water pump.” He said such a process has not been found in other parts of the world.
Based on the data gathered so far, the concentration of methane and carbon dioxide released as a result of seabed fluctuations is very high, Hsu said.
If ways were found to collect the methane, Hsu said, it could be turned into a valuable energy source.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS