Why is there enough oxygen in a pipeline to sustain that big of a fire underwater? The only alternative is that the fire is burning hot enough to breakdown the water to hydrogen and oxygen.

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
Why is there enough oxygen in a pipeline to sustain that big of a fire underwater? The only alternative is that the fire is burning hot enough to breakdown the water to hydrogen and oxygen.

You would need electricity, not heat to split the molecules.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
Why is there enough oxygen in a pipeline to sustain that big of a fire underwater? The only alternative is that the fire is burning hot enough to breakdown the water to hydrogen and oxygen.

You would need electricity, not heat to split the molecules.

There are several ways to split hydrogen and oxygen and electricity is just one of them. 2200F is sufficient for a 3% efficient conversion, but 3000F is sufficient for a 50% efficient conversion.

I'm glad we cleared that up.

Or aliens.

I'd be astounded if there were flames at the breakage point on the sea floor. I would have to assume the gas was at high pressure, but maybe not liquified. So, yeah, flammable but at a cool temperature, fairly high pressure due to the depth and not much free oxygen.

If I had to guess, it leaked, bubbled up to the surface quickly and caught there.

My guess on the boats' activities on the surface has mainly to do with this

quote:

leak near dawn Friday occurred about 150 yards from a drilling platform.

You would NOT want that fire spot meandering any closer to the platform. No telling where wind/tides/currents might try to take that hot spot. If they could put it out, so much the better. But it would have gone out soon after they quit pumping gas through the pipeline, in any event.

If you look at the relative spray distances, that ship behind the platform barely clears his ship - pump issues? To get close enough to do anything with his spray, he'd risk catching his ship. My guess is the captain was told to stick around and do the best he could without risking his ship and crew.

The article said they'd brought the leak 'under control' after about 5 hrs, but it wasn't clear when the video was shot, relative to that.

quote:

Why is there enough oxygen in a pipeline to sustain that big of a fire underwater?

I don't think anyone is stupid enough to put oxygen in a gas pipeline. Though, I've not checked with the Elbonians...

I saw a meme about this over the weekend. It had the picture of the fire and the boats and said something along the lines of "Never forget the time humans caught the ocean on fire. And then tried to put out the fire by... spraying water on it."