墨西哥湾钻井平台。与往日一样,工作人员头顶热带炎阳,汗流浃背,正操作着钻机向冰冷的海底岩石深处钻进。突然,钻头刺入一股高压气体,气体循着钻孔不断向上蔓延、膨胀,最后在平台上爆炸,燃起一场或许需要几个星期才能扑灭的熊熊大火。怎么回事?原来是钻孔中用于阻止气体上升的阀门已被一种奇特的、冰状的水和烃气的混合物所打 Gulf of Mexico drilling platform. As usual, the staff were swept overhead with sweat and were drilling rigs deep into the icy seafloor rock. Suddenly, the drill pierced a high-pressure gas, and the gas continued to spread and expand along the borehole. At last it exploded on the platform, igniting a raging fire that could take weeks to extinguish. What’s going on? The original valve used to stop the gas from rising in the borehole was hit by a peculiar, ice-like mixture of water and hydrocarbon gas