Potential life in Earth's methane lakes

[dimensionless]

There has been some discussion about whether the methane lakes on Titan could harbor life. What I haven't seen discussed is the potential for life in Earth's methane lakes. There are many underground reservoir's on Earth that contain light hydrocarbons such as methane. If I'm not mistaken, the methane is under pressure and should be in liquid form. I suppose no one has preserved methane in its natural liquid state and put it under a microscope. Has no one looked for life in crude oil? I realize no one knows what to look for as radically different life forms might not have DNA. Still, there been so little discussion on this.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I was under the impression that at least some of the methane in the Earth's crust is biogenic in origin
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0009254188901015

EDIT: It also seems that extremophile methanogens exist near ocean vents and possible in the crust and there are organisms called methanotrophs that use methane in their metabolism.

 

[Dr_Morbius]

There has been some discussion about whether the methane lakes on Titan could harbor life. What I haven't seen discussed is the potential for life in Earth's methane lakes. There are many underground reservoir's on Earth that contain light hydrocarbons such as methane. If I'm not mistaken, the methane is under pressure and should be in liquid form. I suppose no one has preserved methane in its natural liquid state and put it under a microscope. Has no one looked for life in crude oil? I realize no one knows what to look for as radically different life forms might not have DNA. Still, there been so little discussion on this.

All methane on Earth that is buried in the Earth's crust is in the gas form. It is far too warm to be compressed into a liquid. The critical temperature for methane is -82.3°C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_point_(thermodynamics)

 

[dimensionless]

All methane on Earth that is buried in the Earth's crust is in the gas form. It is far too warm to be compressed into a liquid. The critical temperature for methane is -82.3°C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_point_(thermodynamics)

Well, perhaps liquid butane then.