Interrelation of Global Climate and the Response of Oceanic Hydrate Accumulations Final Report

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Methane hydrate
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.397.5386; http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/oil-gas/publications/Hydrates/2013reports/esd07-014-final-report.pdf

This report will summarize previously reported or published results concerning the behavior of hydrates subjected to warming, highlighting contributing and mitigating factors relating to the possibility of rapid climate feedbacks. We will thus assess various scenarios and possibilities for the relationship between climate and hydrates: i.e., the likelihood of a “clathrate gun ” event and the mechanisms required for it to occur. The intent of the report is to highlight the most important research results generated during the four-year term of the project, and to report on the completion of proposed task. Please see the referenced papers for additional information at a higher level of detail. It has been postulated that methane from oceanic hydrates may have a significant role in future climate, but the behavior of contemporary oceanic methane hydrate deposits subjected to rapid temperature changes has only recently been investigated. Field investigations have discovered substantial methane gas plumes exiting the seafloor at depths corresponding to the upper limit of a receding gas hydrate stability zone, suggesting the possible warming-driven dissociation of shallow hydrate deposits and raising the question of whether these releases may