Recent interest in gas hydrates emerges from the awareness that hydrate deposits may play significant roles in global and regional processes with societal and economic significance. A global hydrate assessment, although still uncertain, suggests that methane hydrates might represent an important future energy. In addition, other important hydrate questions that have attracted attention include: 1) Is there a feedback between methane hydrate stability and climate? 2) What is the role of methane hydrate in the carbon cycle? and 3) How much does gas hydrate contribute to seafloor stability on continental slopes?

After the successful completion of this lecture the students will have aquired a broad overview and understanding of gas hydrate systems in marine sediments, its interaction with the environment, and recent findings from ongoing research programs that illustrate key aspects of gas hydrate dynamics.

Written examination

written exam

Books on gas hydrate aspects are available in room 1080 (office G. Bohrmann)
Carroll, JJ (2003): Natural gas hydrates - a guide for engineers. Burlington, Ma, Elsevier Science.
Henriet, J-P and Mienert, J, Eds. (1998): Gas Hydrates Relevance to World margin stability and climate change. Geological Society Special Publications. London, The Geological Society.
Kennett, J, Cannariato, K, Hendy, I and Behl, R (2002): Methane hydrates in Quaternary climate change: the clathrate gun hypothesis, AGU books board.
Max, MD, Johnsen, HK and Dillon, WP (2006): Economic geology of natural gas hydrate, Springer.
Paull, C, and Dillon, W. (2001): Natural gas hydrates: Occurrence, distribution, and detection. Geophysical monograph 124, American Geophysical Union.
Riedel, M, Willoughby E.C., Chopra, S. (2010) Geophysical characterization of gas hydrates. SEG Geophysical Develop. Ser No 14:pp. 392
Sloan, EDJ, and Koh CA (2007) Clathrate hydrate of natural gases (third edition). CRC press, Taylor & Francis Group, London, New York.