Gas Hydrates Project Physical Properties Laboratory
An important aspect of gas hydrate studies is understanding the properties of the reservoirs that host hydrate deposits. The USGS Gas Hydrates Project analyzes the sediments that make up gas hydrate reservoirs in the Physical Properties Laboratory.
Gas Hydrates Project
The USGS Gas Hydrates Project has been making contributions to advance understanding of US and international gas hydrates science for at least three decades. The research group working on gas hydrates at the USGS is among the largest in the US and has expertise in all the major geoscience disciplines
Biogeochemistry Lab
The Gas Hydrates Biogeochemistry Laboratory includes all instrumentation used by the USGS Gas Hydrates Project on site at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. This instrumentation is physically distributed among several laboratory spaces.
HyPrCAL Lab
The USGS Gas Hydrates Project manages the standalone Hydrate Pressure Core Analysis Laboratory (HyPrCAL) at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center (WHCMSC) to study hydrate-bearing sediments in support of energy resources and geohazards research.
The physical, geotechnical, and geophysical properties of sediments can determine how much hydrate forms in the reservoir, where the hydrate forms with respect to sediment pores, whether gas migrates through sediments or becomes trapped, and whether reactions between sediment grains and pore waters affect the thermodynamic stability of gas hydrates.
The most important analyses conducted in the Physical Properties Lab provide index property data on grain size distribution in sediments, bulk and grain density, and liquid/plastic limits. For these analyses, researchers often use the sediment left behind after hydrate recovered in pressure cores breaks down. To make these measurements, researchers use a variety of grain size analysis techniques, a drying oven, a 5-cell pycnometer, an optical microscope, and benchtop methods. Because different sediment types (e.g., clay vs. sand) can produce different gas hydrate nucleation and growth patterns, researchers also measure specific surface and use X-ray diffraction data to discern the composition of sediment grains.
