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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

Researchers say they have found [nature.com] more than 500 bubbling methane vents on the seafloor off the US east coast.

The unexpected discovery indicates there are large volumes of the gas contained in a type of sludgy ice called methane hydrate.
[...]
Previous surveys along the Atlantic seaboard have shown only three seep areas beyond the edge of the US continental shelf.

In an area between North Carolina and Massachusetts, they have now found at least 570 seeps at varying depths between 50m and 1,700m.
[...]
Most of the seeping vents were located around 500m down, which is just the right temperature and pressure to create a sludgy confection of ice and gas called methane hydrate, or clathrate [wikipedia.org].

"The methane is dissolving into the ocean at depths of hundreds of metres and being oxidised to CO2," said Prof Skarke. "But it is important to say we simply don't have any evidence in this paper to suggest that any carbon coming from these seeps is entering the atmosphere."

Other related links (on possible events of a catastrophic nature, as a treatment for Mondayitis caused apathy): Clathrate gun hypothesis [wikipedia.org] ("Mother of Storms" [wikipedia.org] anyone?), limnic eruption [wikipedia.org], meromictic lakes/basins [wikipedia.org] some with the anoxic layers rich in hydrogen sulphide [wikipedia.org].

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