This is a past event.

Naturally occurring stray gas and the groundwater chemistry of the aquifers overlying the Marcellus Shale Gas Play, Northeastern Pennsylvania

Stray methane has long been observed and produced from springs and water wells throughout northeastern Pennsylvania and south central New York. In the1920s, the Wheaton farm house, now part of Salt Springs State Park, used stray gas from a spring and wellbore to light the house and cook meals. Stray methane tends to occur in water wells with sodium dominated water types because sodium-rich water is associated with longer groundwater flow paths or deeper groundwater units that contain few electron acceptors (i.e., oxygen and sulfate have already been depleted by microbes, so conditions are highly reducing); oftentimes, water wells with these characteristics occur in topographic lows and coincident with bedrock fractures. Almost 80% of water wells have detectable methane concentrations.