VICTORIA -- Canadian scientists will have plenty of "flammable ice" to study in what's being touted as a new energy source for the next generation, but don't expect to be cooking with the substance any time soon.

Ross Chapman, a University of Victoria geophysicist, said yesterday that the massive discovery of so-called gas hydrates sitting in mud at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean will keep researchers busy for many years.

University researchers were able to use a remotely operated submersible vehicle last month to take samples of the icy substance consisting of methane, the main constituent of natural gas, trapped in rigid water molecules.

The hydrates are also buried hundreds of metres beneath the ocean floor.

However, there are major engineering challenges. While the discovery is stirring immediate excitement in the scientific community, commercial extraction remains a long-term proposition because the technology to tap the hydrates doesn't exist yet, said Ian Doig, publisher of Doig's Digest, a Calgary-based energy newsletter.

He said there will come a day when hydrates become a priority for the private sector, but for now, "flammable ice" should be viewed as a complex development that could take 30 years.

Mr. Doig, 70, figures that while research into hydrates is valuable, it's a fuel source that may not have commercial applications until his children are retired.

Then there are the environmental concerns. Some researchers believe that natural releases of methane from oceans contributed to global warming in the past.

One paper published in Science magazine in late 1999 by researchers at Rutgers University in New York speculated that a small increase in temperature defrosted enough gas hydrates to further warm the planet and make possible the spread of mammals 55 million years ago.

The Canadian field of frozen natural gas, located roughly 80 kilometres off the west coast of Vancouver Island, has the potential to meet Canada's gas requirements for decades, Mr. Chapman said at news conference announcing the huge discovery.

The gas find equals the proven onshore gas reserves for Canada -- an amount that is forecast to last another nine years. Adding in other estimates of gas reserves on top of the proven supplies, the discovery southwest of Vancouver Island would be enough to supply Canada for 40 years.

Mr. Chapman said there's keen interest among scientists around the world to study gas hydrates.

Canada, which is part of an international program to test for hydrates in the High Arctic, is fortunate to have made the discovery off Vancouver Island, he said.

About two years ago, fishermen trawling the sea floor hundreds of metres below the surface hauled up big chunks of the methane-laden ice in their nets. When the crew brought the ice to the surface, they were frightened by the way the ice would fizzle as it contacted air.

The lesson to be learned is that anyone thinking about somehow collecting a souvenir deep in the Pacific Ocean shouldn't bother because the ice would ignite if lit with a match, or be poisonous if enough methane is released, he cautioned.

Howard Brunt, the university's associate vice-president of research, was also on hand for yesterday's announcement. Advances in technology, such as the remotely operated submersible, have made it possible to probe much closer than ever before, he said.

A frozen, fragile treasure

Scientists from the University of Victoria have found a massive deposit of frozen natural gas.
Deposit lies 850m below sea level
CN Tower stands 553m high
Methane hydrates: an elusive bounty

Methane hydrates are ice-like formations formed on the ocean floor during subduction, when a plate of the earth's crust dives beneath another. This causes fluids, containing gas, to rush to the surface. When the gas is at greater depths, it's warm, and as it moves vertically up the sediment column, it freezes as a hydrate.
Methane hydrates begin to decompose into gas and water like bubbling Alka-Seltzer as soon as they are removed from the ocean floor, making them difficult to exploit. Deposits are estimated to be twice as numerous as the world's known oil, coal and natural gas deposits. Hundreds of deposit sites have been identified off the coasts of Japan, India and Costa Rica.