Potential for Climate Induced Methane Hydrate Dissociation

Methane hydrates are frozen deposits of methane and water found in high pressure or low temperature sediments. When these deposits destabilize, large quantities of methane can be emitted into the atmosphere. This is significant to climate change because methane has 25 times more greenhouse gas potential than Carbon Dioxide. Worldwide, it is estimated there are between 2500 and 10000 gigatons of methane stored in hydrate deposits. This represents more carbon than all fossil fuels on Earth. It is estimated that between 200 and 2000 gigatons of methane are stored in hydrates in Arctic waters acutely vulnerable to greenhouse warming. Over the last decade, researchers have identified instances of hydrate destabilization that have already begun. To gain insight into the potential climatic effects widespread hydrate dissociation would have, researchers have examined hydrate dissociation during the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago as a geologic precedent. In this period, large-scale hydrate dissociation contributed to 5-8 degree Celsius warming worldwide. If such a climatic shift were to transpire today, impacts on society would be enormous. There is currently a debate in the scientific community as to whether the risk of methane hydrate dissociation is relevant to the present generation. One side argues that not enough methane could be emitted into the atmosphere from today’s hydrate sources to have a meaningful impact on climate warming, where the other side contends that more than enough methane could be emitted from present day hydrate deposits to cause significant impacts to the global greenhouse effect. Given the information currently known about hydrates, it is reasonable to conclude there is a moderate risk of widespread destabilization that could impact global climate change in the coming decades. Significant acceleration of the conversion to alternative energies and implementation of geoengineering strategies should be considered

Unsolved Problems Related to the Covering Radius of Codes

Introduction Codes with low covering radius have applications in source coding and data compression (see [6]). Although there has been considerable activity in recent years in studying these codes ([2]-[4], [6], [7], [9], [10], [12], [13]), many open questions remain. The following are some of the most important. Other problems may be found in [2], [6]. 1. What is the solution to Berlekamp's light-bulb game? In the Math. Dept. Commons Room at Bell Labs in Murray Hill there is a light-bulb game built by Elwyn Berlekamp nearly twenty years ago. There are 100 light-bulbs, arranged in a 10 × 10 array. At the back of the box there are 100 individual switches, one for each bulb. On the front there are 20 switches, one for each row and column. Throwing one of the rear switches changes the state of a single bulb, while throwing one of the front switches changes the state of a whole row or column. Suppose some subset S of the 100 bulbs ar