Methane

Rescue crews digging through 800 tons of dirt and rubble have found no sign of two miners they hoped were the closest of 65 men trapped four days ago in an underground explosion, and measurements showed toxic levels of methane, authorities said Thursday. Obstructions, cave-ins and methane levels have slowed rescuers since they began work early Sunday at the Pasta de Conchos mine, about 70 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas.

A new image captured by the Cassini spacecraft indicates that Saturn's moon Titan may have a giant lake filled with methane. Located in the moon's south polar region, the putative lake is a well-defined but irregularly shaped dark spot with smooth, shore-like boundaries. It is about 145 miles by 45 miles, roughly the size of Lake Ontario on the U.S.-Canadian border, Cassini scientists said. It lies in Titan's cloudiest region, where astronomers believe there might be methane rain.

In the early days of Los Angeles, it was easy to get rid of garbage: People burned it in backyard incinerators. Or shipped it to ranches to feed hogs. By the late 1950s, most of the city's garbage was routed to landfills. About 940,000 tons of trash generated by the people of Los Angeles are buried in dumps each year. But now, most dumps are getting full -- and no one wants a new one built near them.

The possible discovery of an ice volcano on Saturn's moon Titan may solve one of the lingering mysteries about the strange satellite with the smog-choked atmosphere. Scientists have wondered for decades where the methane in Titan's atmosphere came from. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere. Most of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen, but up to 3% is methane.

Rainstorms of liquid methane wash the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, spawning rivers that tumble onto dark, gooey plains of hydrocarbons in an otherworldly version of Earth's water cycle, scientists announced Friday. A new analysis of data from the European Huygens space probe shows a world with its own complex climatological cycle played out on a frigid landscape chilled to minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the wheel of a dusty 1997 Chrysler convertible on this warm, cloudless mid-September afternoon is a shortish, roundish, 66-year-old man known mostly these days as Chuck Harris. With his moptop of white hair, the unlined face of a child actor, which indeed he once was, and the square black Swifty Lazar-type eyeglasses of extreme magnification, he pulls up to the guard gate at the KTLA studios in Hollywood. "Chuck Harris for 'Steve Harvey's Big Time!' " he says jauntily.

Once again an imperiled bird has become a symbol of clashing values in the Western wilds. Reminiscent of the bitter struggle over the spotted owl, a battle over the greater sage grouse is pitting an industry against protectors of an ancient and colorful species that inhabits the same region believed to harbor much of the West's most promising natural gas deposits.

Los Angeles City Council members voted unanimously Wednesday to impose uniform standards for builders and developers to deal with naturally occurring -- and potentially explosive -- methane gas underlying portions of the city. The ordinance, which passed 12 to 0 after the late arrival of Councilman Alex Padilla, requires builders to test for methane and to install remediation systems if the gas is found. Methane is a colorless and odorless gas often associated with oil fields.

Vast peat bogs in the Russian Arctic hold substantially more methane than researchers had previously thought, and may play a major role in global warming, a team headed by UCLA geographer Laurence C. Smith reported in the Jan. 16 issue of Science. The peat bogs account for as much as 26% of global carbon stores accumulated since the last Ice Age, the researchers said.

The Orange City Council on Tuesday scrapped a controversial housing development, avoiding an unprecedented showdown at the polls that would have left the project's fate in the hands of voters. Last month, a divided council granted changes to the city's land-use plans that allowed Fieldstone Communities Inc. to build 177 homes in a 110-acre parcel in eastern Orange.