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Question: Why is it important to study Gas Hydrate resources?

Answer:
Natural Gas Hydrate contains highly concentrated methane, which is important both as an energy resource and as a factor in global climate change.

The USGS estimates that there are 85.4 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas from natural gas hydrates on the Alaskan North Slope. This is the first-ever resource estimate of technically recoverable natural gas hydrates in the world.

This assessment shows that gas hydrates could add significantly to the U.S. energy mix. The Alaskan North Slope holds one of the nation's largest deposits of technically recoverable natural gas.

 

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1928 South Cascade Glacier:1928 black-and-white oblique-angle aerial photo of South Cascade Glacier, northwestern Washington State, looking approximately southeast.
USGS Director Marcia McNutt and FWS Service Director Sam Hamilton sign a strategic habitat conservation MOU:In the face of global climate change and other 21st-century resource threats, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey are taking steps to strengthen and expand their science-management relationship to conserve fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats.
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Source URL: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/hydrates/index.html
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