Gas Hydrate
Gas Hydrate
Gas Hydrate
Clathrates
(methane hydrates)
What are clathrates?
What is the origin of the methane in
clathrates?
Beasties living off decaying clathrates
Where do clathrates occur naturally?
How much clathrates are there?
Clathrates as possible fuel source
Clathrates as a cause of tsunamis/ climate
change
Grey=carbon
Green=hydrogen
in CH4
Red = oxygen
White= hydrogen
in H2O
Hydrate
Stability
Hydrate
Stability
2013
Gas Hydrate
on the Sea
floor
Beasties!
Beasties!
Tube
worms
and crab
SEA WATER
Host
S
Organic material
H2S
CO2
SO 42-
2CH3COOH=CH4+CO2
CH4
2CH2O+SO4= H2S+2HCO3?
coarse,
porous
sediment
How does
the
foodchain in
these seep
communities
function?
Clathrates as fuel:
Problems: how to collect the gas in a controlled way?
Small % recoverable?
Need to be treated as synfuels to
get oil-equivalent
"synthetic fuel" is to describe fuels manufactured via Fischer
Tropsch conversion, methanol to gasoline conversion, or direct
coal liquefaction.
Methane hydrates
(Thermogenic methane)
(Hydrothermal vent methane)
Strict anaerobes.
Highly specialized in terms of food sources
Can only use simple compounds (1 or 2 carbon atoms), and many
species can only use 1 or 2 of these simple compounds.
Therefore, dependent on other organisms for their substrates;
food web / consortium required to utilize sediment organic matter.
Yellowstone : Halobacterias
CO2 reduction
Acetate fermentation
Zinder, 1993
3 of 4 H from acetate
CH3COO- + H2O => CH4 + HCO3-
Fermentation - Slope
much lower, 1 of 4 H
from water
Methanogenesis in freshwater
systems dominated by acetate
fermentation (larger
fractionation);
in (sulfate-free) marine systems, by
CO2 reduction (smaller
fractionation)
Used fluorescent
probes to label, image
aggregates of archaea
(methanogens, red)
and sulfate reducers
(green) in sediments
from Hydrate Ridge
(OR) observed very
tight spatial coupling.
DeLong 2000
(N&V to Boetius et al.)
Known
global
occurance
of gas
hydrates
Most marine gas
hydrates have 13C
values lower than 60
o/oo, and are of
microbial origin.
Hydrates with higher
13C values (> - 40 o/oo)
and containing some
higher MW
hydrocarbons are
thermogenic
Geophysical
signature of gas
hydrates: presence
of a bottom
simulating
reflector in seismic
data, due to velocity
contrast (hydrate /
free gas).
water
sediment
hydrate
free gas
Seismics
The stiffening of the sediments results in increase of the
compressional velocity, Vp and cementation of sediment grains
by hydrate will lead to increase in shear modulus and thereby
shear wave velocity Vs.
This reflector marks the phase boundary
Runs parallel to the sea floor: Bottom simulating reflector
Phase boundary dependent on the thermobaric conditions:
reflector cuts across the dipping sedimentary beds
Stable
GH Unstable
Vp=(k+4/3)/
k= Bulk modulus; = Rigidity or Shear
modulus; =density
in hydrate is lower while is
higher than sediment-porewater-gas
system
Pure hydrates have much higher seismic velocity and resistivity compared to
the normal oceanic sediments within the stability zone. So, the presence of gashydrates above the BSR increases the seismic velocity or resistivity.
Whereas, even a small amount of 'free-gas' lying below the hydrated sediments
decreases the velocity considerably
Methane hydrates:
Possibly LARGE fuel source
(natural gas): more than twice all
other fossil fuels
Unknown difficulties in recovery
Production may cause major
slumps, tsunamis, and
exacerbated greenhouse effect
Climate change/Tsunamis
Methane is a strong greenhouse gas
If clathrates are destabilized, huge
amounts of methane are added to the
atmosphere (55 X106 years ago??)
Sediments loose strength==>slip
downslope==> slumps==> tsunamis
Methane is rapidly oxidized to CO2,
also a greenhouse gas
Warming to LPTM
Late Paleocene
thermal maximum
High-resolution sampling
of the 13C event.
Magnitude, time-scales,
consistent with sudden
release of 1.1 x 1018 g CH4
with 13C of 60 o/oo, and
subsequent oxidation.
Did warming going into
LPTM drive hydrate
dissociation, and methane
release?
Did similar (smaller)
events occur during the last
glaciation? (Kennett)