Direct measurement of in situ methane quantities in a large gas-hydrate reservoir

Gerald R. Dickens, Charles K. Paull and Paul Wallace
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Gerald R. Dickens: University of Michigan
Charles K. Paull: University of North Carolina
Paul Wallace: Texas A & M University

Nature, 1997, vol. 385, issue 6615, 426-428

Abstract: Abstract Certain gases can combine with water to form solids—gas hydrates—that are stable at high pressures and low temperatures1,2. Conditions appropriate for gas-hydrate formation exist in many marine sediments where there is a supply of methane. Seismic reflection profiles across continental margins indicate the frequent occurrence of gas hydrate within the upper few hundred metres of sea-floor sediments, overlying deeper zones containing bubbles of free gas3–9. If large volumes of methane are stored in these reservoirs, outgassing may play an important role during climate change10–12. Gas hydrates in oceanic sediments may in fact comprise the Earth's largest fossil-fuel reservoir2,13. But the amount of methane stored in gas-hydrate and free-gas zones is poorly constrained2–9,13–18. Here we report the direct measurement of in situ methane abundances stored as gas hydrate and free gas in a sediment sequence from the Blake ridge, western Atlantic Ocean. Our results indicate the presence of substantial quantities of methane (˜15 GT of carbon) stored as solid gas hydrate, with an equivalent or greater amount occurring as bubbles of free gas in the sediments below the hydrate zone.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/385426a0

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