X-Message-Number: 4643
Date: 18 Jul 95 11:57:55 EDT
From: yvan Bozzonetti <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS: gas hydrates lava 

Thomas Donaldson asks if a typical water lava is flammable in the reducing 
Earth atmosphere. The answer is no, but... It slowly decompose and release 
some flammable gas. A way to keep it stable is to work under presure. The 
CH4 hydrate, far more prone to decompose is stabe at 70 m deep presure ( 15 
- 18 atm). This is not too costly to get but more costly than simple LN2 
cryostats.

I think it would be an interesting option to thaw a corpse at low 
temperature so that it can be repaired or scanned with an MRI system 
working only with liquids. It could be useful too at the experimental 
stage, to test the cooling dammages without a phase transition to a solid 
and back to liquid.

Informations on gas hydrates stability can be found in : 
- Jeff Hecht, New Scientist, 8 July 1995, p.16 and  S. Dallimore, T. 
Collett, Geology, vol. 23, p. 527.

	Yvan Bozzonetti.


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