Researchers report that groundwater sampled adjacent to the site of a 1965 gas well blowout in the Netherlands contained high methane concentrations with isotopic compositions characteristic of the gas reservoir from which the blowout occurred, suggesting that methane leakage from the reservoir is ongoing 50 years after the blowout, and that anaerobic methane oxidation reduced methane concentrations and altered isotope concentrations with increasing distance from the blowout site.
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Article #17-11472: "Impact of an historic underground gas well blowout on the current methane chemistry in a shallow groundwater system," by Gilian Schout, Niels Hartog, S. Majid Hassanizadeh, and Jasper Griffioen.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gilian Schout, Utrecht University, NETHERLANDS; tel: +31-616523607; e-mail: < g.schout@uu.nl >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences