OFF: Chemical processes for underwater fire

Pat, for chemicals that combust in contact with water, go to:
http://www.scescape.net/%7Ewoods/elements.html
and dig around the light-blue ones towards the left of the table.
The page isn't perfect, but it's a sufficient starting point.

The most interesting option IMO is Sodium (Na), as in NaCl, aka
common Salt, which is available in abundance in seawater.

If we're still on octopi (or other sealife), I'm thinking about a bodily
process that makes a Sodium compound from the surrounding
water.  The compound is perfectly safe in vivo, but breaks down
fairly rapidly in seawater to allow the Sodium in pure form to get to
work.  I dunno enuf about the chemistry (and biochemistry, but
that's more kinda open-ended I guess) to give a much more
detailed view than that, I'm afraid, but it sounds feasable to me.

This has a practical evolutionary advantage as a defensive
mechanism, and could become a useful tool.

---
Pb, who is (at last) back to a "real" email prog again, as promised.
(Also, wondering what happened to the Proverbs of Bastet relay)