About

The Gas Hydrates Program manages the Hydrate Pressure Core Analysis Lab (HyPrCAL). When the facility opened in spring 2017, HyPrCAL was the first U.S. laboratory dedicated to the analysis of pressure cores, which are seafloor or permafrost samples recovered and maintained at in situ pressure and low temperatures in order to preserve gas hydrate in the specimens.

U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project

Larger image shows a USGS scientist standing in the lab, while the inset shows the outside of the lab — USGS physical scientist Lee-Gray Boze and research engineer Junbong Jang depressurize one of the test chambers that make up the Pressure Core Characterization Tools in HyPrCAL, the new USGS pressure core analysis facility. Inset photograph shows the new laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Credit: USGS.

long shot of scientific laboratory with equipment on the floor, walls, and shelving — Hydrate Pressure Core Analysis Laboratory (HyPrCAL) at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center.