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In July 1972, the U.S. Office of Naval Research identified several areas that it interpreted as being of interest to the U.S. Navy. Four of these research areas were then selected for their special importance in understanding physical processes on the ocean floor. In some of these, a great wealth of data has accumulated over the past two or three decades, but controversy exists in the interpretation of the results. In others, new techniques have re cently been devised that could lead to the collection and synthesis of new information. There was yet a third area in which little study had been undertaken and the results available appeared of great potential importance. The latter subject constitutes the title of this volume. To assess the information available and to facilitate plans for further research in the fields of interest that had been identified, the U.S. Office of Naval Research sponsored four symposia. The first was held in November 1972 at the University of California Con ference Center, Lake Arrowhead. The title of the symposium was "Natural Gases in Marine Sediments and Their Mode of Distribution". Twenty lectures were presented over a three-day period. All but two participants at this symposium subsequently submitted papers, which are published in this volume. In addition, Dr. K.O. Emery, who did not attend the symposium, supplied a manuscript on a topic most re levant to the subject matter discussed.
The phenomenon of sound transmissions through marine sediments is of extreme interest to both the United States civilian and Navy research communities. Both communities have conducted research within the field of this phenomenon approaching it from different perspectives. The academic research community has approached it as a technique for studying sedimentary and crustal structures of the ocean basins. The Navy research community has approached it as an additional variable in the predictability of sound trans mission through oceanic waters. In order to join these diverse talents, with the principal aim of bringing into sharp focus the state-of-the-science in the problems relating to the behavior of sound in marine sediments, the Office of Naval Research organized and sponsored an invited symposium on this subject. The papers published in this volume are the results of this symposium and mark the frontiers in the state-of-the-art. The symposia series were based on five research areas identified by ONR as being particularly suitable for critical review and for the appraisal of future research trends. These areas include: 1. Physics of Sound in Marine Sediments, 2. Physical and Engineering Properties of Deep-Sea Sediments, 3. The Role of Bottom Currents in Sea Floor Geological Processes, 4. Nephelometry and the Optical Properties of the Ocean I'laters, S. Natural Gases in Marine Sediments and Their Mode of Distribution. These five areas also form some of the research priorities of the ONR program in Marine Geology and Geophysics.
This book is a companion to “Natural Gas Hydrate in Oceanic and Permafrost Environments” (Max, 2000, 2003), which is the first book on gas hydrate in this series. Although other gases can naturally form clathrate hydrates (referred to after as ‘hydrate’), we are concerned here only with hydrocarbon gases that form hydrates. The most important of these natural gases is methane. Whereas the first book is a general introduction to the subject of natural gas hydrate, this book focuses on the geology and geochemical controls of gas hydrate development and on gas extraction from naturally occurring hydrocarbon hydrates. This is the first broad treatment of gas hydrate as a natural resource within an economic geological framework. This book is written mainly to stand alone for brevity and to minimize duplication. Information in Max (2000; 2003) should also be consulted for completeness. Hydrate is a type of clathrate (Sloan, 1998) that is formed from a cage structure of water molecules in which gas molecules occupying void sites within the cages stabilize the structure through van der Waals or hydrogen bonding.
There is much interest in gas hydrates in relation to their potential role as an important driver for climate change and as a major new energy source; however, many questions remain, not least the size of the global hydrate budget. Much of the current uncertainty centres on how hydrates are physically stored in sediments at a range of scales. This volume details advances in our understanding of sediment-hosted hydrates, and contains papers covering a range of studies of real and artificial sediments containing both methane hydrates and CO2 hydrates. The papers include an examination of the techniques used to locate, sample and characterize hydrates from natural, methane-rich systems, so as to understand them better. Other contributions consider the nature and stability of synthetic hydrates formed in the laboratory, which in turn improve our ability to make accurate predictive models.
1. THE BEGINNINGS OF HYDRATE RESEARCH Until very recently, our understanding of hydrate in the natural environment and its impact on seafloor stability, its importance as a sequester of methane, and its potential as an important mechanism in the Earth's climate change system, was masked by our lack of appreciation of the vastness of the hydrate resource. Only a few publications on naturally occurring hydrate existed prior to 1975. The first published reference to oceanic gas hydrate (Bryan and Markl, 1966) and the first publication in the scientific literature (Stoll, et a1., 1971) show how recently it has been since the topic of naturally occurring hydrate has been raised. Recently, however, the number of hydrate publications has increased substantially, reflecting increased research into hydrate topics and the initiation of funding to support the researchers. Awareness of the existence of naturally occurring gas hydrate now has spread beyond the few scientific enthusiasts who pursued knowledge about the elusive hydrate because of simple interest and lurking suspicions that hydrate would prove to be an important topic. The first national conference on gas hydrate in the U.S. was held as recently as April, 1991 at the U.S. National Center of the U.s. Geological Survey in Reston Virginia (Max et al., 1991). The meeting was co-hosted by the U.s. Geological Survey, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the U.S.
These results suggest an influence of depth on the maximum rates of methane oxidation, with the microbial communities at the shallower sites heavily impacted by benthic disturbances, and starved of methane by the action of intense bubble discharge. Finally, evidence from a shallow 10m depth seep suggests that methane-derived carbonates form from isolated gas pockets even in thermogenic gas seeps with elevated carbon dioxide.
The book is an up-to-date basic reference for natural gas hydrate (NGH) in the Arctic Ocean. Geographical, geological, environmental, energy, new technology, and regulatory matters are discussed. The book should be of interest to general readers and scientists and students as well as industry and government agencies concerned with energy and ocean management. NGH is a solid crystalline material that compresses gas by about a factor of about 164 during crystallization from natural gas (mainly methane) - rich pore waters over time. NGH displaces water and may form large concentrations in sediment pore space. Its formation introduces changes in the geotechnical character of host sediment that allows it to be distinguished by seismic and electric exploration methods. The chemical reaction that forms NGH from gas and water molecules is highly reversible, which allows controlled conversion of the NGH to its constituent gas and water. This can be achieved rapidly by one of a number of processes including heating, depressurization, inhibitor injection, dissolution, and molecular replacement. The produced gas has the potential to make NGH a valuable unconventional natural gas resource, and perhaps the largest on earth. Estimates for NGH distribution, concentration, economic targets, and volumes in the Arctic Ocean have been carried out by restricting the economic target to deepwater turbidite sands, which are also sediment hosts for more deeply buried conventional hydrocarbon deposits. Resource base estimates are based on NGH petroleum system analysis approach using industry-standard parameters along with analogs from three relatively well known examples (Nankai-Japan, Gulf of Mexico-United States, and Arctic permafrost hydrate). Drilling data has substantiated new geotechnical-level seismic analysis techniques for estimating not just the presence of NGH but prospect volumes. In addition to a volumetric estimate for NGH having economic potential, a sedimentary depositional model is proposed to aid exploration in the five different regions around the deep central Arctic Ocean basin. Related topics are also discussed. Transport and logistics for NGH may also be applicable for stranded conventional gas and oil deposits. Arising from a discussion of new technology and methodologies that could be applied to developing NGH, suggestions are made for the lowering of exploration and capital expenses that could make NGH competitive on a produced cost basis. The basis for the extraordinarily low environmental risk for exploration and production of NGH is discussed, especially with respect to the environmentally fragile Arctic region. It is suggested that because of the low environmental risk, special regulations could be written that would provide a framework for very low cost and safe development.
Gas hydrates in their natural environment and for potential industrial applications (Volume 2).
This second edition provides extensive information on the attributes of the Natural Gas Hydrate (NGH) system, highlighting opportunities for the innovative use and modification of existing technologies, as well as new approaches and technologies that have the potential to dramatically lower the cost of NGH exploration and production. Above all, the book compares the physical, environmental, and commercial aspects of the NGH system with those of other gas resources. It subsequently argues and demonstrates that natural gas can provide the least expensive energy during the transition to, and possibly within, a renewable energy future, and that NGH poses the lowest environmental risk of all gas resources. Intended as a non-mathematical, descriptive text that should be understandable to non-specialists as well as to engineers concerned with the physical characteristics of NGH reservoirs and their production, the book is written for readers at the university graduate level. It offers a valuable reference guide for environmentalists and the energy community, and includes discussions that will be of great interest to energy industry professionals, legislators, administrators, regulators, and all those concerned with energy options and their respective advantages and disadvantages.