Tons f Methane Gas Could Be Trapped Under Antarctica.docVIP

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in?VOASpecial English. I抦 Bob Doughty.T SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I抦 Shirley Griffith. Today, we tell about methane gas thought to be trapped under ice-covered areas of Antarctica. We also tell about the growing use of generic drugs in fighting HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS. And we have a report on the search for an effective vaccine against HIV. (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: An international team of scientists has found that up to four billion tons of methane gas could be trapped under ice-covered areas of Antarctica. The scientists say extremely small organisms may have changed ancient organic matter into methane. And they say if enough ice melts, it is possible that enough of the gas could escape and add to the warming of Earth抯 atmosphere. Jemima Wadham of Bristol University in Britain directed the?study. She says the amount of organic carbon recorded is more than ten times the size of all carbon supplies in Earth抯 northern permafrost areas. The journal Nature published her report about the findings. Sandra Arndt also worked on the?gstudy. At the time, she was with Utrecht University in The Netherlands. She says the high pressure and cold temperatures under the ice make good conditions for forming methane hydrate. And she says it was not surprising that the?studyconfirmed the presence of methane hydrate. The substance is a solid similar to ice. It is formed when methane gets trapped within a structure of water molecules. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The continent of Antarctica is mainly over the South Pole, almost totally south of the Arctic Circle. The scientists say the organic material came from a period thirty five million years ago. At that time, Antarctica was much warmer than today and contained life forms. Researcher Slawek Tulaczyk of the University of California at Santa Barbara described how methane formed. She said some of the organic material became trapped in material that had fallen to the bottom. She said these sedimen