In addition to analyzing pressure cores, the USGS Gas Hydrates Project also contributes expertise in transport and storage of these special samples.
Using a design originated by Georgia Tech, USGS researchers have overseen the construction and certification of special storage chambers that can be used to maintain, monitor, and transport pressure core samples from the field site to specialized laboratories.
Understanding the properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediment and the behavior of a gas hydrate reservoir over time (geologic time, or on human scales if gas hydrates are tapped as an energy resource) requires understanding properties of the sediment itself. After measuring sediment core properties in the presence of gas hydrate, the gas hydrate is dissociated (broken down) by depressurizing the core. The gas is collected and can be analyzed in the Gas Hydrates Project Biogeochemistry Laboratory investigate where the reservoir gas was generated and how the reservoir might have formed.
The sediment remaining in the depressurized core barrel is then recovered, characterized and tested in the Gas Hydrates Project Physical Properties Laboratory. The measurements conducted there inform not only how the pressure core data should be interpreted, but also how a gas hydrate production well should be constructed to endure changes in sediment properties over the well’s extended operational lifetime.
