What are gas hydrates?
Gas hydrates are 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.
Gas hydrates are important for three reasons:
- They may contain a major energy resource
- It may be a significant hazard because it alters sea floor sediment stability, influencing collapse and landsliding
- The hydrate reservoir may have strong influence on the environment and climate, because methane is a significant greenhouse gas.
Learn more: U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project
Related Content
Who studies gas hydrates?
How are gas hydrates studied?
Special Issue Highlights One of the Most Extensive Gas Hydrate Datasets Ever Collected
The USGS and its research partners in India and Japan have reported on one of the most extensive data sets ever collected on the occurrence of natural gas hydrate.
USGS Estimates 53.8 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas Hydrate Resources in the Alaska North Slope
Access to 3D seismic mapping, along with a greater understanding of gas hydrate reservoir properties, yields estimates that are more precise.
Test Well Confirms Two Gas Hydrate Reservoirs in Alaska North Slope
In the far north of Alaska, near the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field, an international research consortium has been studying the potential of an altogether different energy source. In late December of 2018, drilling operations confirmed the existence of two high-quality reservoirs that were fully saturated with a potential alternative fuel source: gas hydrate.
The interaction of climate change and methane hydrates is one of the Reviews of Geophysics' top rated articles!
According to Reviews of Geophysics this work received some of the highest count of citations amongst articles published between January 2017 and December 2018.
Seismic Research Cruise Provides New Data on U.S. Atlantic Margin Gas Hydrates
Data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey on the U.S. Atlantic Margin in August 2018 reveal new information about the distribution of gas hydrates in the sector stretching from the upper continental slope to deep water areas offshore New Jersey to North Carolina.
Modern Perspective on Gas Hydrates
After lying hidden in sediments for thousands of years, delicate frozen gas structures are in the spotlight for both scientific research and the national interest. These structures, known as gas hydrate, are being investigated by scientists the world over for their possible contributions to the global energy mix, as well as their potential interaction with the environment.
Exploring Gas Hydrates as a Future Energy Source
In the past decade, the development of the Barnett, Eagle Ford, Marcellus, and other shales has dominated the national consciousness regarding natural gas. But in Alaska, another form of natural gas has been the focus of research for decades—methane hydrate.
EarthWord–Gas Hydrate
No, this EarthWord isn’t how natural gas quenches its thirst-it just sounds like it...
When Ice Yields Fire
When can ice yield fire? That’s the burning question at the heart of one of USGS’s longest-running research programs to date: the exploration of gas hydrates.
Proven under Pressure: USGS Advances Capabilities for High-Pressure Seafloor Samples Containing Gas Hydrate
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Gas Hydrate Schematic
Summary of the locations where gas hydrate occurs beneath the seafloor, in permafrost areas, and beneath some ice sheets, along with the processes (shown in red) that destroy methane (sinks) in the sediments, ocean, and atmosphere. The differently colored circles denote different sources of methane. Gas hydrates are likely breaking down now on shallow continental
...Gulf of Mexico Gas Hydrate Formation
Gas hydrate (white, ice-like material) under authigenic carbonate rock that is encrusted with deep-sea chemosynthetic mussels and other organisms on the seafloor of the northern Gulf of Mexico at 966 m (~3170 ft) water depth. Although gas hydrate that forms on the seafloor is not an important component of the global gas hydrate inventory, deposits such as these
...Mallik Gas Hydrate Sample
A sample of gas hydrate from the Mallik Test Well in Canada. Credit: USGS.
Gas Hydrates Burning
An image of gas hydrates burning. Gas hydrates are naturally-occurring “ice-like” combinations of natural gas and water that have the potential to provide an immense resource of natural gas from the world’s oceans and polar regions.
USGS Gas Hydrates Lab
Gas hydrates are a significant potential energy source occurring in ocean-floor sediments at water depths greater than 500 meters and beneath Arctic permafrost. The USGS operates a gas hydrates laboratory on its Menlo Park campus. This video features USGS geophysicists Laura Stern and Steve Kirby who relate details on how they study and create gas hydrates in their super-
Gas Hydrates in Marine Sediments from the Indian Ocean
This image shows gas hydrates (the white material) in marine sediments from a test well drilled in the Indian Ocean in 2006 during the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) Expedition 01.
The NGHP Expedition 01 was designed to study the gas-hydrate occurrences off the Indian Peninsula and along the Andaman convergent margin with special emphasis on
...Gas Hydrates in Marine Sediments
This image shows gas hydrates (the white material) in marine sediments from a test well drilled in the Indian Ocean in 2006 during the Indian National Gas Hydrate Program (NGHP) Expedition 01.
The NGHP Expedition 01 was designed to study the gas-hydrate occurrences off the Indian Peninsula and along the Andaman convergent margin with special emphasis on
...Gas Hydrates in Marine Sediments off the Oregon Coast
During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 204, nine sites were cored and wireline logged on the Oregon continental margin to determine the distribution and concentration of gas hydrates in an accretionary ridge setting, investigate the mechanisms that transport methane and other gases into the gas hydrate stability zone, and obtain constraints on physical properties of gas
...Gas Hydrates in Marine Sediments off the Oregon Coast
During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 204, nine sites were cored and wireline logged on the Oregon continental margin to determine the distribution and concentration of gas hydrates in an accretionary ridge setting, investigate the mechanisms that transport methane and other gases into the gas hydrate stability zone, and obtain constraints on physical properties of gas
...Burning Gas Hydrates
Natural gas from gas hydrates burning. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is the most common of the gases that form gas hydrate. In fact, the amount of natural gas within the world’s gas hydrate accumulations is estimated to greatly exceed the volume of all known conventional gas resources. Because of that potential, the USGS and academic, government, and
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