Abstract
At low temperatures and high pressures, icelike crystalline inclusion compounds, gas hydrates, may form when high concentrations of methane and water cooccur in subsurface strata. Sediments in large areas of the permafrost and on the outer continental margins of the oceans occur within the appropriate temperature and pressure regime for hydrates to be stable. Since Makogon (1965) first reported the occurrence of hydrates in permafrost regions, it has been determined that an even larger reservoir of hydrate gas is probably present in marine sediments (Fig. 1). Estimates of the amount of hydrate gas in permafrost and oceanic sediments vary from 1.4 × 1013 to 3.4 × 1016 and from 3.1 × 1015 to 7.6 × 1018 m3, respectively (Kvenvolden, 1988). The reservoir of hydrates in oceanic sediments is believed to be at least two orders of magnitude greater than that in permafrost regions. Given these two repositories of hydrates, even the most conservative estimates indicate the enormity of the carbon reservoir. On a global scale, it has been estimated that the only pool of organic carbon larger than methane hydrates is disseminated carbon in sediments and rocks (Kvenvolden, 1988). It has been estimated that the natural gas reservoired in hydrates surpasses total fossil fuel reserves by as much as a factor of 2 (Kvenvolden, 1988). Hydrates represent a substantial energy resource of the future if the appropriate technologies can be developed for their recovery.
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Kennicutt, M.C., Brooks, J.M., Cox, H.B. (1993). The Origin and Distribution of Gas Hydrates in Marine Sediments. In: Engel, M.H., Macko, S.A. (eds) Organic Geochemistry. Topics in Geobiology, vol 11. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2890-6_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2890-6_24
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