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 The
Center for Marine Resources and Environmental Technology (CMRET) at the
University of Mississippi established the Gas Hydrates Research
Consortium in 2001 to study gas hydrate mounds and active gaseous
hydrocarbon vents in the Gulf of Mexico. The Consortium is composed of
gas hydrate experts from most of the major Gulf Coast universities along
with oceanographic institutes including Woods Hole and Scripps. One of
the main purposes of the program is to better understand the
relationships between gas hydrates and episodes of sediment instability
that may pose a threat to the petroleum industry’s infrastructure and
safety of operations.The Consortium program involves the development of a
permanent observatory to monitor the dissociation /accumulation of gas
hydrates and impacts on the adjacent seafloor, water column and marine
biota. Design aspects have been discussed in detail by some of the
world’s foremost experts in appropriate fields at several workshops held
during the past several years. The site selected for the observatory is
in Mississippi Canyon Block 118 in 2,500 to 3,000 feet of water.
The observatory is expected to become fully
operational by the end of 2006. It will provide, on a more or less
continuous basis, physical and chemical information concerning changes
in gas hydrate deposits, active gas vents, seafloor stability, and the
environmental character of the area. If that data reveals factors which
elicit responses from chemosynthetic cOEMMunities nearby, the station’s
capabilities will be expanded to include biological monitoring. That
would permit study of the interactions between life forms and
physical/chemical stimuli and of the ways biologic agents produce or
modify geologic materials and processes. Before deployment of the
observatory, detailed site surveys were conducted and all components
were tested and evaluated. Funding for the program has been provided by
the Minerals Management Service, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology
Lab, and the Naval Research Lab.
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Last Updated:
08/08/2008,
12:28:16 PM
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