**Woods Hole Science Center**

**Project:** USGS Gas Hydrates

*This is an existing project that is well suited to continuing under the
vision of the Science Strategy*

**Statement of Problem**: Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid formed of
water and gas. It looks and acts much like ice, but it contains huge
amounts of methane; it is known to occur on every continent; and it
exists in huge quantities in marine sediments in a layer several hundred
meters thick directly below the sea floor and in association with
permafrost in the Arctic. It is not stable at normal sea-level pressures
and temperatures, which is the primary reason that it is a challenge to
study. It is important for three reasons: (1) It may contain a major
energy resource;

\(2\) It may be a significant hazard because it alters sea floor
sediment stability, influencing collapse and landsliding; and (3) The
hydrate reservoir may have strong influence on the environment and
climate, because methane is a significant greenhouse gas.

This project seeks to understand the occurrences of and geological
processes that control methane hydrate in the natural environment. This
includes topics such as identifying and quantifying gas hydrate from
remote sensing techniques, determining its concentration into possibly
extractable accumulations, studying how it changes the strength of
sediments and generates overpressures, understanding processes of
seafloor mobilization, and determining processes that sequester methane
in the sediments and allow its transfer into the oceans and the
atmosphere. Collaborations with academia and industry further explore
the role of bacteria in methanogenesis in sediments and the hazards
posed by gas hydrate for the offshore drilling industry.

*Note: The study of gas hydrates encompasses four of the six science
strategy topics: Energy and Minerals, Climate Change, Ecosystems, and
Hazards*

**Objectives to Accomplish:**

-   Construct quantitative source-migration-reservoir models of the
    hydrate system for specific and general cases.

-   Develop predictive capability for how gas hydrates interact with
    natural and man-made phenomena to affect sea-floor properties.

-   Assess hydrates as a potential and/or significant source of
    green-house gas emissions?

-   Expedite Project management, interagency coordination, and
    information management for USGS Gas Hydrates Research

**Work Strategy:** As defined in the project, the strategy is
multifaceted:

-   Multidisciplinary field programs to characterize gas hydrate
    occurrence (Gulf of Mexico, North Slope of Alaska, Southern
    California)

-   Drill holes with full logging, sampling, and associated analysis

-   Laboratory studies of field and synthetic hydrate-sediment mixtures

-   Mapping and integrated analysis and interpretation of data

-   Numerical modeling of hydrate occurrence and fluid flux

-   Collaborations

**Potential Impact:** Gas hydrates offer USGS the opportunity to be
involved in the timely research that precedes the development of an
alternative energy supply for the Nation and potentially the world.
Although it is still uncertain whether gas hydrates are a viable
alternative energy, the perception remains that it is, and Congress has
authorized and appropriated funds under the Methane Hydrate Research and
Development Act of 2000 and reauthorized the bill for an additional 5
years in 2005 (under the Energy Policy Act of 2005). Should hydrate
become an energy resource, it is likely to redraw the global
geopolitical strategic map, as regions and nations that are energy-poor
may realize they can reduce imports by developing hydrates. In addition,
gas hydrate research helps understand sea-floor stability because
hydrates are hypothesized to cause tsunami-generating submarine
landslides and destabilized deep-water infrastructure. Understanding the
mobility of gas hydrates in the natural environment will contribute to
understanding their role in the global carbon cycle, Earth history, and
global climate change.

**Project Chief:** Deborah R. Hutchinson, <dhutchinson@usgs.gov>,
508-457-2263