Natural gas hydrates in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Characteristics, formation, and evolution

ABSTRACT: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (also referred to as the Plateau) is the largest area bearing alpine permafrost region in the world and thus is endowed with great formation conditions and prospecting potential of natural gas hydrates (NGH). Up to now, one NGH accumulation, two inferred NGH accum...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:China Geology
Main Authors: You-hai Zhu, Shou-ji Pang, Rui Xiao, Shuai Zhang, Zhen-quan Lu
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2021
Subjects:
Natural gas hydrates (NGH)
Permafrost
Global climate change
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
TA1-2040
Geology
QE1-996.5
Arctic
Climate change
Global warming
permafrost
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.31035/cg2021025
https://doaj.org/article/469763b0a21b4ef08208a030eb5a1372
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Summary:ABSTRACT: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (also referred to as the Plateau) is the largest area bearing alpine permafrost region in the world and thus is endowed with great formation conditions and prospecting potential of natural gas hydrates (NGH). Up to now, one NGH accumulation, two inferred NGH accumulations, and a series of NGH-related anomalous indicators have been discovered in the Plateau, with NGH resources predicted to be up to 8.88×1012 m3. The NGH in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have complex gas components and are dominated by deep thermogenic gas. They occur in the Permian-Jurassic strata and are subject to thin permafrost and sensitive to environment. Furthermore, they are distinctly different from the NGH in the high-latitude permafrost in the arctic regions and are more different from marine NGH. The formation of the NGH in the Plateau obviously couples with the uplift and permafrost evolution of the Plateau in spatial-temporal terms. The permafrost and NGH in the Qilian Mountains and the main body of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau possibly formed during 2.0–1.28 Ma BP and about 0.8 Ma BP, respectively. Under the context of global warming, the permafrost in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is continually degrading, which will lead to the changes in the stability of NGH. Therefore, The NGH of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau can not be ignored in the study of the global climate change and ecological environment.©2021 China Geology Editorial Office.

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