LA’s Methane Gas Leak was one of the worst disasters in US history

Los Angeles‘ methane gas leak, that started on 23 October 2015, was one of the worst Environmental disasters in US history.

Image via Earthworks 

The methane gas leak in Aliso Canyon, released 97,100 metric tons of methane over 112 days, equivalent to the annual gas emissions of over half a million cars, according to a scientific paper published in Science:

Analysis of methane (CH₄) and ethane (C₂H₆) data from dozens of plume transects from 13 research aircraft flights between 7 Nov 2015 and 13 Feb 2016 shows atmospheric leak rates of up to 60 metric tonnes of CH₄ and 4.5 metric tonnes of C₂H₆ per hour. At its peak this blowout effectively doubled the CH₄ emission rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin, and in total released 97,100 metric tonnes of methane to the atmosphere.

Don Blake, an atmospheric scientist at UC Irvine, said:

“This is by far the biggest methane leak, I’ve ever seen.”

via edf.org

source sciencemag