Methane_clathrate

Don't know much about them, overall, but here are some quick thoughts.

Again, we are seeing how difficult it can be to drill for oil in this environment. Plenty can go wrong, even when everything is done correctly. The more we learn, the more it is looking likely than several things were done wrong.

The clathrates that clogged the pipe were formed in the pipe (or in the containment dome) when the gas mixed with the cold water.

Sediments can hold lots of gasses, but when they reach saturation, they releass it violently. Remember the volcanic lake in Africa that exploded a CO2 cloud that smothered a whole village?

There are speculations that a massive slide off a continetal shelf would release a dangerous cloud of methane, that asside from being an explosive, smothering gas, would dramatically affect the greenhouse properties of the atmosphere. I've not studied it enough to offer an opinion on this.

Another problem I've heard about is that if a large enough release of methane occurs unter a ship, the bubbles in the water change the buoyancy conditions, which can sink even a large ship.