Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Michael Casso

Michael Casso is a Physical Scientist with the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Gas Hydrates Project.

Science and Products

link
Image: Gas Hydrates Burning

U.S. Geological Survey 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, as well as in the physics and chemistry of gas hydrates, the geotechnical properties of hydrate...
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
link

U.S. Geological Survey 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, as well as in the physics and chemistry of gas hydrates, the geotechnical properties of hydrate...
Learn More
link
Area in northern Alaska where subsurface temperature and pressure conditions are conducive to the occurrence of gas hydrates

Gas Hydrates- Climate and Hydrate Interactions

The USGS Gas Hydrates Project focuses on the study of natural gas hydrates in deepwater marine systems and permafrost areas.  Breakdown of gas hydrates due to short- or long-term climate change may release methane to the ocean-atmosphere system. As a potent greenhouse gas, methane that reaches the atmosphere from degrading gas hydrate deposits could in turn exacerbate climate warming.
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
link

Gas Hydrates- Climate and Hydrate Interactions

The USGS Gas Hydrates Project focuses on the study of natural gas hydrates in deepwater marine systems and permafrost areas.  Breakdown of gas hydrates due to short- or long-term climate change may release methane to the ocean-atmosphere system. As a potent greenhouse gas, methane that reaches the atmosphere from degrading gas hydrate deposits could in turn exacerbate climate warming.
Learn More
link
Hydrate Molecule

Gas Hydrates - Primer

What is Gas Hydrate? Gas hydrate is an ice-like crystalline form of water and low molecular weight gas (e.g., methane, ethane, carbon dioxide). On Earth, gas hydrates occur naturally in some marine sediments and within and beneath permafrost. Gas hydrates have also been inferred on other planets or their moons.
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
link

Gas Hydrates - Primer

What is Gas Hydrate? Gas hydrate is an ice-like crystalline form of water and low molecular weight gas (e.g., methane, ethane, carbon dioxide). On Earth, gas hydrates occur naturally in some marine sediments and within and beneath permafrost. Gas hydrates have also been inferred on other planets or their moons.
Learn More

Water column properties and temporal hydrologic and chemical records from flooded caves (Ox Bel Ha and Cenote Crustacea) within the coastal aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, from December 2013 to January 2015

Natural cave passages penetrating coastal aquifers in the Yucatan Peninsula (Quintana Roo, Mexico) were accessed to investigate how regional meteorology and hydrology control dissolved organic carbon and methane dynamics in karst subterranean estuaries, the region of aquifers where fresh and saline waters mix. Three field trips were carried out in December 2013, August 2014, and January 2015 to ob
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Gas Hydrates Project Biogeochemistry Laboratory

Comparison of methane concentration and stable carbon isotope data for natural samples analyzed by discrete sample introduction module - cavity ring down spectroscopy (DSIM-CRDS) and traditional methods

A discrete sample introduction module (DSIM) was developed and interfaced to a cavity ring-down spectrometer to enable measurements of methane and CO2 concentrations and 13C values with a commercially available cavity ring-down spectrometer (CRDS). The DSIM-CRDS system permits the analysis of limited volume (5 - 100-ml) samples ranging six orders-of-magnitude from 100% analyte to the lower limit o
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Geochemical data supporting investigation of solute and particle cycling and fluxes from two tidal wetlands on the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2012-19 (ver. 2.0, October 2022)

Assessment of geochemical cycling within tidal wetlands and measurement of fluxes of dissolved and particulate constituents between wetlands and coastal water bodies are critical to evaluating ecosystem function, service, and status. The U.S. Geological Survey and collaborators collected surface water and porewater geochemical data from a tidal wetland located on the eastern shore of Sage Lot Pond
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Coastal Groundwater Chemical Data from the North and South Shores of Long Island, New York

Groundwater data were collected in the spring and fall of 2008 from three sites representing different geological settings and biogeochemical conditions within the surficial glacial aquifer of Long Island, NY. Investigations were designed to examine the extent to which average vadose zone thickness in contributing watersheds controlled biogeochemical conditions and processes, including dissolved o
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Data and calculations to support the study of the sea-air flux of methane and carbon dioxide on the West Spitsbergen margin in June 2014

A critical question for assessing global greenhouse gas budgets is how much of the methane that escapes from seafloor cold seep sites to the overlying water column eventually crosses the sea-air interface and reaches the atmosphere. The issue is particularly important in Arctic Ocean waters since rapid warming there increases the likelihood that gas hydrate--an ice-like form of methane and water s
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

USGS tools perform gas source analysis in the field

Field studies of gas hydrate rely on gas sampling and analysis tools to determine the origins and alteration of methane and other hydrocarbons. The conventional strategy for deciphering gas origins has been to collect gas and other related samples in the field then pack, ship, store, and later analyze these discrete samples in a laboratory using instruments that require specialized training and de
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Discrete sample introduction module for quantitative and isotopic analysis of methane and other gases by cavity ring-down spectroscopy

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are natural and anthropogenic products that play a central role in the global carbon cycle and regulating Earth’s climate. Applications utilizing laser absorption spectroscopy, which continuously measure concentrations and stable isotope ratios of these greenhouse gases, are routinely employed to measure the source and magnitude of atmospheric inputs. We deve
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Recent sandy deposits at five northern California coastal wetlands — Stratigraphy, diatoms, and implications for storm and tsunami hazards

A recent geological record of inundation by tsunamis or storm surges is evidenced by deposits found within the first few meters of the modern surface at five wetlands on the northern California coast. The study sites include three locations in the Crescent City area (Marhoffer Creek marsh, Elk Creek wetland, and Sand Mine marsh), O’rekw marsh in the lower Redwood Creek alluvial valley, and Pillar

By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

An intercomparison of oceanic methane and nitrous oxide measurements

Large-scale climatic forcing is impacting oceanic biogeochemical cycles and is expected to influence the water-column distribution of trace gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. Our ability as a scientific community to evaluate changes in the water-column inventories of methane and nitrous oxide depends largely on our capacity to obtain robust and accurate concentration measurements that can
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Enhanced CO2 uptake at a shallow Arctic Ocean seep field overwhelms the positive warming potential of emitted methane

Continued warming of the Arctic Ocean in coming decades is projected to trigger the release of teragrams (1 Tg = 106 tons) of methane from thawing subsea permafrost on shallow continental shelves and dissociation of methane hydrate on upper continental slopes. On the shallow shelves (
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

A simple headspace equilibration method for measuring dissolved methane

Dissolved methane concentrations in the ocean are close to equilibrium with the atmosphere. Because methane is only sparingly soluble in seawater, measuring it without contamination is challenging for samples collected and processed in the presence of air. Several methods for analyzing dissolved methane are described in the literature, yet none has conducted a thorough assessment of the method yie
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Review of Oceanographic and Geochemical Data Collected in Massachusetts Bay during a Large Discharge of Total Suspended Solids from Boston's Sewage-Treatment System and Ocean Outfall in August 2002

During the period August 14-23, 2002, the discharge of total suspended solids (TSS) from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sewage-treatment plant ranged from 32 to 132 milligrams per liter, causing the monthly average discharge to exceed the limit specified in the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. Time-series monitoring data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey i
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Long-term oceanographic observations in Massachusetts Bay, 1989-2006

This data report presents long-term oceanographic observations made in western Massachusetts Bay at long-term site A (LT-A) (42 deg 22.6' N., 70 deg 47.0' W.; nominal water depth 32 meters) from December 1989 through February 2006 and long-term site B (LT-B) (42 deg 9.8' N., 70 deg 38.4' W.; nominal water depth 22 meters) from October 1997 through February 2004 (fig. 1). The observations were coll
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

The coral reef of South Moloka'i, Hawai'i— Portrait of a sediment-threatened fringing reef

Moloka‘i, with the most extensive coral reef in the main Hawaiian Islands, is especially sacred to Hina, the Goddess of the Moon. As Hinaalo, she is the Mother of the Hawaiian people; as Hinapuku‘a, she is the Goddess of Fishermen; and in the form Hina‘opuhalako‘a, she is the Goddess who gave birth to coral, coral reefs, and all spiny marine organisms. Interdependence between the reef’s living res
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Processes influencing the transport and fate of contaminated sediments in the coastal ocean– Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay

Most of the major urban centers of the United States including Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle—are on a coast (fig. 1.1). All of these cities discharge treated sewage effluent into adjacent waters. In 2000, 74 percent of the U.S. population lived within 200 kilometers (km) of the coast. Between 1980 and 2002, the population density
By
St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Quantity, composition, and source of sediment collected in sediment traps along the fringing coral reef off Molokai, Hawaii

Sediment traps were used to evaluate the frequency, cause, and relative intensity of sediment mobility/resuspension along the fringing coral reef off southern Molokai (February 2000–May 2002). Two storms with high rainfall, floods, and exceptionally high waves resulted in sediment collection rates > 1000 times higher than during non-storm periods, primarily because of sediment resuspension by wave
By
Natural Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

The effect of the new Massachusetts Bay sewage outfall on the concentrations of metals and bacterial spores in nearby bottom and suspended sediments

Since the new outfall for Boston's treated sewage effluent began operation on September 6, 2000, no change has been observed in concentrations of silver or Clostridium perfringens spores (an ecologically benign tracer of sewage), in bottom sediments at a site 2.5 km west of the outfall. In suspended sediment samples collected with a time-series sediment trap located 1.3 km south of the outfall, si
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
counterflow device capable of isolating and holding a single gas bubble link
2 men standing next to laboratory equipment
link

Science and Products