You can download our article from this Research Gate:

A combination of radar and thermal approaches to search for methane clathrate in the Martian subsurface, 2004.

N.S. Duxbury · S.S. Abyzov · V.E. Romanovsky · K Yoshikawa; Planetary and Space Science, 52, 109 -

Hi Karyl,

Please check the pdf attachment and the links given below for the answer to your queries.

http://energy.gov/fe/methane-hydrates-and-climate-change

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/methane-hydrates-and-contemporary-climate-change-24314790

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010RG000326/full

Well, the little chemistry i know teaches me that hydrocarbons react with oxygen to produce carbondioxide and water. Methane in the atmosphere can react with oxygen to produce a high release of carbondioxide which will definitely lead to depletion of the ozone layer ... I think you know the rest. Hahaha

Potentially they are important, because of positive feedback loop between warming and methane release from hydrates. Therefore, this problem is under active consideration. However, the real danger of this feedback cannot not be fully assessed with t he presently available Earth System models. Many modules (e.g., permafrost, marine sediments, fate of the methane in the ocean) should be developed to do so. 

They did.if you read Latif's work. I wonder, why you answer all kind of questions even if you have no idea about the subject? Is it just to grow your rg-scores or what?

Methane is a good greenhouse gas, but its lifetime in the atmosphere is short due to its affinity with oxygen. It basically burns into CO2 and water vapor, both of which adds to the atmospheric greenhoue, but the effect is small because water vapor already is prevalent in the lower atmosphere, and CO2 doesn't have much effect because its limited atmospheric windows are already saturated.

I'm not sure, but el Nino affects NH weather patterns immensely, and that could be what is causing drought in parts of the country. Methane hydrate, if it could be safely retrieved from the deep, cold ocean basins, would be a great energy source until we get the Environmental lobby off the backs of the Nuclear industry. France did not listen to those naysayers, and neither should we. That would save fossil fuel for use in transportation and agriculture, where other sources are problematical.

Yes, of course, burning it will create CO2, but the CO2 has very little influence on climate. The real causes of climate response to inputs is very complicated, but the major input is solar radiation, and any change in that will have a pronounced effect on Earth's climate.

You Ales and Kenneth are both right - both methane and CO2 IR bands do overlap water vapor's IR bands, which makes them minor contributors to Earth's atmospheric greenhouse. The IPCC completely neglects water vapor's contribution (~98%) of the Atmospheric greenhouse effect because they have a political agenda to cripple energy use by man, so they skew results to make anthropogenic CO2 and methane emissions seem worse for the environment than they really are.

Karyl,

You say three out of four extinctions were caused by methane hydrates. Could you itemise them, please. As far as I know only the PETM event has been blamed on methane hydrates, and now the cause is thought to be the up welling during the opening of the Atlantic Ocean which cooked the fossil fuel deposits.