Louisiana Mystery: Huge Gas Leak Was So Big It Was Spotted in Space

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There are a million eyes looking at us right now.  Satellites from every space-savvy country in the world have cameras, sensors, and more pointed back at the little blue marble we call Earth looking for pretty much every thing you can imagine.  We're talking 4,500+ orbiting vehicles devoting an immeasurable amount of attention on our home planet, and one of those orbital outposts has detected a worrisome (and stinky) anomaly.

The Amount of Methane From Louisiana that Blasted Into the Sky Was Noticed From Space

The Earth-conscious folks at EcoWatch are reporting that gigantic plume of Methane gas has been detected by a satellite collecting data for the information analysts at Kayrros.  That's right, so much gas blasted into the atmosphere it was registered in space.  In case you are wondering if that's a big deal - it registered an emissions rate of 105 tons of methane per hour.  Experts say that the total is the equivalent of annual emissions from more than 1,900 cars.

Louisiana Officials Still Don't Know Exactly Where This Huge Gas Leak Came From

The crazy part about this miles-high cloud of foul-smelling and highly-flammable gas shooting into (and above) the atmosphere is where it came from.  That part is a mystery experts are desperately trying to solve right now.  I guess the rules of "He who smelt it, must have dealt it," don't apply here - but officials do have a short list of suspects.  According to Bloomberg:

The emissions likely originated within 7 kilometers of gas pipelines owned by Energy Transfer LP, Kinder Morgan Inc. and Boardwalk Pipelines LP, and was also near active oil and gas wells