Woods Hole Science Center
Gas Hydrates is an are ice-like crystalline solids formed from a mixtures of water and natural gas, usually methane. They occur where pressure, temperature, gas saturation, and local chemical conditions combine to make them stable. Gas Hydrates occurs in the pore spaces of sediments, and may form cements, nodes, veins, or layers.
They are found in sub-permafrost locations on land in polar regions and on most continental margins of the world in near sea-floor sediments below about 500 m water depth, or approximately 1,600 ft.
Natural Gas Hydrates contains highly concentrated methane, which is could be important both as an energy resource and as a factor in global climate change. Because gas hydrates change the stiffness of sediments, they may also be important in understanding hazards to sea-floor installations in deep water such as wells, pipelines and drilling platforms.
Gas Hydrate can be studied in the laboratory, where a machine is used to create the proper pressure and temperature conditions for hydrate formation, or it can be studied in situ using seismic data collected aboard ships and geophysical models.
Currently, groups of scientists in the U.S., Canada, Norway, Great Britain and Japan are working to try to understand gas hydrate and the role it plays in the global climate and the future of fuels.
Does loss of gas from gas hydrate account for extensive ship-sinkings in the "Bermuda Triangle"
Research and publications of the USGS
Research and publications of other groups participating in gas hydrate research
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/index.html
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Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 30-Jul-2008 13:20:41 EDT
