Fiery Ice-Gas Hydrates

• Published in: Frontiers for Young Minds
• Main Author: Hillman, Jess I. T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers 2019
• Subjects: Arctic; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/47234/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/47234/1/Fiery_Ice-Gas_Hydrates.pdf; https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2019.00096

All around the world, beneath the seafloor, there are huge volumes of natural gas. But these are not the normal gas reservoirs that we collect to use for cooking, heating our homes, and making electricity in power stations. This gas is locked up in what we call gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are a solid form of water, rather like ice, that contains gas molecules locked up in a “cage” of water molecules. Gas hydrates are found on continental shelves around the world and in permafrost in the arctic. We are interested in gas hydrates because they could be used as a future source of natural gas. They are also important because they can cause large landslides on the seafloor, damaging offshore pipelines and cables and contributing to the formation of tsunami waves.