AI
Sunday, August 08, 2004 9:59:20 PM
I keep seeing this renewed interest in the Arctic. Russia has returned to the Arctic for good and China has just set up their first scientific research station in the Arctic area.
Since Russia and India have recently initiated a program on gas hydrate research and gas hydrates occur abundantly in nature, both in Arctic regions and in marine sediments I am thinking the race is on in earnest for gas hydrates.
Just speculating.
-Am
Russia returns to Arctic for good-Arctic explorer
08.08.2004, 16.54
ST.PETERSBURG, August 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russian launches large-scale explorations from drifting ice floes of the Central Arctic and confidently returns the priority of the leading Arctic power, said on Sunday in an interview with Tass Ivan Frolov, standing on the flagship of the polar flotilla Akademik Fedorov. He leads an expedition, which will head from St. Petersburg for high latitudes overnight from August 10 to 11.
Frolov, director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, specified that a new drifting station North Pole-33 (SP-33) with 12 polar researchers will be set up to the north of the Novosibirsk Islands, in the area of the 82-83 degrees of the northern latitude.
“This means Russia’s firm intention to return to the Arctic for good after a 20-year pause,” the chief polar explorer noted. According to Frolov, the Arctic project found full understanding and support from Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov at a meeting, held with members of the expedition of the SP-33 station on Saturday in Moscow.
The 2004 federal budget appropriated 70 million roubles to organize the expedition. “The world scientific community refers the scientific mission of “the North Pole” drifting stations and high-latitude “North” air expeditions to the number of the most outstanding and lengthy expedition programmes of the 20th century”, said the institute director in conclusion.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1109857&PageNum=0
China opens scientific research station in Arctic area
UPDATED: 08:26, July 29, 2004
China's first scientific research station in the Arctic area, the Yellow River Station located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, officially opened on Wednesday.
In a letter, Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, extended congratulations on the opening of the station and
greetings to China's polar research scientists on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.
Hu said in the letter that scientific research in the polar areas is a great cause that would benefit both the current generation and the generations to come. With the assiduous efforts made by China's polar research scientists, the country's polar research will surely be able to make new and greater contributions to the lofty cause of peace and development of humankind.
A team of 11 Chinese scientists had left for the Yellow River Station on July 20 to do research for more than a month.
Over the past 20-plus years, China has successfully organized 20 Antarctic expeditions and two Arctic expeditions. Besides the newly opened Arctic station, China has two scientific research stations in the Antarctic area.
"The three stations have not only provided a crucial platform for China's polar scientific research, but also opened important windows for scientific exchanges with other countries," Hu said in his letter.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200407/29/eng20040729_151202.html
India, Russia To Undertake Research On Gas Hydrates
SUDHIR CHOWDHARY
Posted online: Monday, August 09, 2004 at 0000 hours IST
NEW DELHI: A programme on gas hydrate research has been initiated by the government to identify an alternative source of energy. As part of this, an Indo-Russian Science and Technology Centre for gas hydrate studies has been set up in the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) campus at Chennai.
This centre will take up detailed investigations on gas hydrates, as a joint research programme between India and Russia, department of ocean development secretary Harsh K Gupta said. “Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline accumulations formed from methane and water. It is a newly discovered mineral deposit that occurs in ocean sediments. One cubic meter of gas hydrate, when brought to the surface, is expected to yield 164 cubic meters of natural gas. This can be utilised as a future resource,” Dr Gupta told eFE.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=65438
Gas Hydrates
Methane trapped in marine sediments as a hydrate represents such an immense carbon reservoir that it must be considered a dominant factor in estimating unconventional energy resources; the role of methane as a 'greenhouse' gas also must be carefully assessed.
Dr. William Dillon,
U.S. Geological Survey
Hydrates store immense amounts of methane, with major implications for energy resources and climate, but the natural controls on hydrates and their impacts on the environment are very poorly understood.
Gas hydrates occur abundantly in nature, both in Arctic regions and in marine sediments. Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules. It looks very much like water ice. Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters, and where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer several hundred meters thick.
The worldwide amounts of carbon bound in gas hydrates is conservatively estimated to total twice the amount of carbon to be found in all known fossil fuels on Earth.
This estimate is made with minimal information from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other studies. Extraction of methane from hydrates could provide an enormous energy and petroleum feedstock resource. Additionally, conventional gas resources appear to be trapped beneath methane hydrate layers in ocean sediments.
Recent mapping conducted by the USGS off North Carolina and South Carolina shows large accumulations of methane hydrates.
A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the State of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States. Some of the gas was formed by bacteria in the sediments, but some may be derived from deep strata of the Carolina Trough. The Carolina Trough is a significant offshore oil and gas frontier area where no wells have been drilled. It is a very large basin, about the size of the State of South Carolina, that has accumulated a great thickness of sediment, perhaps more than 13 kilometers. Salt diapirs, reefs, and faults, in addition to hydrate gas, may provide greater potential for conventional oil and gas traps than is present in other east coast basins.
The immense volumes of gas and the richness of the deposits may make methane hydrates a strong candidate for development as an energy resource.
Because the gas is held in a crystal structure, gas molecules are more densely packed than in conventional or other unconventional gas traps. Gas-hydrate-cemented strata also act as seals for trapped free gas. These traps provide potential resources, but they can also represent hazards to drilling, and therefore must be well understood. Production of gas from hydrate-sealed traps may be an easy way to extract hydrate gas because the reduction of pressure caused by production can initiate a breakdown of hydrates and a recharging of the trap with gas.
USGS investigations indicate that gas hydrates may cause landslides on the continental slope.
Seafloor slopes of 5 degrees and less should be stable on the Atlantic continental margin, yet many landslide scars are present. The depth of the top of these scars is near the top of the hydrate zone, and seismic profiles indicate less hydrate in the sediment beneath slide scars. Evidence available suggests a link between hydrate instability and occurrence of landslides on the continental margin. A likely mechanism for initiation of landsliding involves a breakdown of hydrates at the base of the hydrate layer. The effect would be a change from a semi-cemented zone to one that is gas-charged and has little strength, thus facilitating sliding. The cause of the breakdown might be a reduction in pressure on the hydrates due to a sea-level drop, such as occurred during glacial periods when ocean water became isolated on land in great ice sheets.
Methane, a "greenhouse" gas, is 10 times more effective than carbon dioxide in causing climate warming.
Methane bound in hydrates amounts to approximately 3,000 times the volume of methane in the atmosphere. There is insufficient information to judge what geological processes might most affect the stability of hydrates in sediments and the possible release of methane into the atmosphere. Methane released as a result of landslides caused by a sea-level fall would warm the Earth, as would methane released from gas hydrates in Arctic sediments as they become warmed during a sea-level rise. This global warming might counteract cooling trends and thereby stabilize climatic fluctuation, or it could exacerbate climatic warming and thereby destabilize the climate.
Results of USGS investigations indicate that methane hydrates possess unique acoustic properties.
The velocity of sound in hydrate is very high, and therefore the velocity of sound in the surface layer of hydrate-cemented sediments also is high. Specific acoustic characteristics of hydrate-cemented sediments are not well known and require further study. Such information has significant implications in the use of sonar devices for defense, seismic exploration, and research.
Realizing the importance of methane hydrates in marine sediments, the USGS has focused work on selected areas where hydrates are known to be common, and where the influences of hydrates on energy resources, climate, and seafloor stability can be analyzed.
At this stage, it is important for USGS scientists to learn how the hydrates form, evolve, and break down, how they affect sediments, and what factors control their concentration at certain locations, as well as to explore for new hydrate accumulations. Cooperation with other Federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for bathymetry studies, the Department of Energy for application of hydrate gas extraction technology, and the U.S. Navy for acoustic studies, will enhance the success of future work.
For more information please contact: Dr. William Dillon, USGS, Woods Hole, MA 02543 (508) 457-2224 or Dr. Keith Kvenvolden, USGS, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 354-3213
September 1992
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:VBp_pQvzE6AJ:marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.htm....
Since Russia and India have recently initiated a program on gas hydrate research and gas hydrates occur abundantly in nature, both in Arctic regions and in marine sediments I am thinking the race is on in earnest for gas hydrates.
Just speculating.
-Am
Russia returns to Arctic for good-Arctic explorer
08.08.2004, 16.54
ST.PETERSBURG, August 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russian launches large-scale explorations from drifting ice floes of the Central Arctic and confidently returns the priority of the leading Arctic power, said on Sunday in an interview with Tass Ivan Frolov, standing on the flagship of the polar flotilla Akademik Fedorov. He leads an expedition, which will head from St. Petersburg for high latitudes overnight from August 10 to 11.
Frolov, director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, specified that a new drifting station North Pole-33 (SP-33) with 12 polar researchers will be set up to the north of the Novosibirsk Islands, in the area of the 82-83 degrees of the northern latitude.
“This means Russia’s firm intention to return to the Arctic for good after a 20-year pause,” the chief polar explorer noted. According to Frolov, the Arctic project found full understanding and support from Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov at a meeting, held with members of the expedition of the SP-33 station on Saturday in Moscow.
The 2004 federal budget appropriated 70 million roubles to organize the expedition. “The world scientific community refers the scientific mission of “the North Pole” drifting stations and high-latitude “North” air expeditions to the number of the most outstanding and lengthy expedition programmes of the 20th century”, said the institute director in conclusion.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1109857&PageNum=0
China opens scientific research station in Arctic area
UPDATED: 08:26, July 29, 2004
China's first scientific research station in the Arctic area, the Yellow River Station located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, officially opened on Wednesday.
In a letter, Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, extended congratulations on the opening of the station and
greetings to China's polar research scientists on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.
Hu said in the letter that scientific research in the polar areas is a great cause that would benefit both the current generation and the generations to come. With the assiduous efforts made by China's polar research scientists, the country's polar research will surely be able to make new and greater contributions to the lofty cause of peace and development of humankind.
A team of 11 Chinese scientists had left for the Yellow River Station on July 20 to do research for more than a month.
Over the past 20-plus years, China has successfully organized 20 Antarctic expeditions and two Arctic expeditions. Besides the newly opened Arctic station, China has two scientific research stations in the Antarctic area.
"The three stations have not only provided a crucial platform for China's polar scientific research, but also opened important windows for scientific exchanges with other countries," Hu said in his letter.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200407/29/eng20040729_151202.html
India, Russia To Undertake Research On Gas Hydrates
SUDHIR CHOWDHARY
Posted online: Monday, August 09, 2004 at 0000 hours IST
NEW DELHI: A programme on gas hydrate research has been initiated by the government to identify an alternative source of energy. As part of this, an Indo-Russian Science and Technology Centre for gas hydrate studies has been set up in the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) campus at Chennai.
This centre will take up detailed investigations on gas hydrates, as a joint research programme between India and Russia, department of ocean development secretary Harsh K Gupta said. “Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline accumulations formed from methane and water. It is a newly discovered mineral deposit that occurs in ocean sediments. One cubic meter of gas hydrate, when brought to the surface, is expected to yield 164 cubic meters of natural gas. This can be utilised as a future resource,” Dr Gupta told eFE.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=65438
Gas Hydrates
Methane trapped in marine sediments as a hydrate represents such an immense carbon reservoir that it must be considered a dominant factor in estimating unconventional energy resources; the role of methane as a 'greenhouse' gas also must be carefully assessed.
Dr. William Dillon,
U.S. Geological Survey
Hydrates store immense amounts of methane, with major implications for energy resources and climate, but the natural controls on hydrates and their impacts on the environment are very poorly understood.
Gas hydrates occur abundantly in nature, both in Arctic regions and in marine sediments. Gas hydrate is a crystalline solid consisting of gas molecules, usually methane, each surrounded by a cage of water molecules. It looks very much like water ice. Methane hydrate is stable in ocean floor sediments at water depths greater than 300 meters, and where it occurs, it is known to cement loose sediments in a surface layer several hundred meters thick.
The worldwide amounts of carbon bound in gas hydrates is conservatively estimated to total twice the amount of carbon to be found in all known fossil fuels on Earth.
This estimate is made with minimal information from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other studies. Extraction of methane from hydrates could provide an enormous energy and petroleum feedstock resource. Additionally, conventional gas resources appear to be trapped beneath methane hydrate layers in ocean sediments.
Recent mapping conducted by the USGS off North Carolina and South Carolina shows large accumulations of methane hydrates.
A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the State of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States. Some of the gas was formed by bacteria in the sediments, but some may be derived from deep strata of the Carolina Trough. The Carolina Trough is a significant offshore oil and gas frontier area where no wells have been drilled. It is a very large basin, about the size of the State of South Carolina, that has accumulated a great thickness of sediment, perhaps more than 13 kilometers. Salt diapirs, reefs, and faults, in addition to hydrate gas, may provide greater potential for conventional oil and gas traps than is present in other east coast basins.
The immense volumes of gas and the richness of the deposits may make methane hydrates a strong candidate for development as an energy resource.
Because the gas is held in a crystal structure, gas molecules are more densely packed than in conventional or other unconventional gas traps. Gas-hydrate-cemented strata also act as seals for trapped free gas. These traps provide potential resources, but they can also represent hazards to drilling, and therefore must be well understood. Production of gas from hydrate-sealed traps may be an easy way to extract hydrate gas because the reduction of pressure caused by production can initiate a breakdown of hydrates and a recharging of the trap with gas.
USGS investigations indicate that gas hydrates may cause landslides on the continental slope.
Seafloor slopes of 5 degrees and less should be stable on the Atlantic continental margin, yet many landslide scars are present. The depth of the top of these scars is near the top of the hydrate zone, and seismic profiles indicate less hydrate in the sediment beneath slide scars. Evidence available suggests a link between hydrate instability and occurrence of landslides on the continental margin. A likely mechanism for initiation of landsliding involves a breakdown of hydrates at the base of the hydrate layer. The effect would be a change from a semi-cemented zone to one that is gas-charged and has little strength, thus facilitating sliding. The cause of the breakdown might be a reduction in pressure on the hydrates due to a sea-level drop, such as occurred during glacial periods when ocean water became isolated on land in great ice sheets.
Methane, a "greenhouse" gas, is 10 times more effective than carbon dioxide in causing climate warming.
Methane bound in hydrates amounts to approximately 3,000 times the volume of methane in the atmosphere. There is insufficient information to judge what geological processes might most affect the stability of hydrates in sediments and the possible release of methane into the atmosphere. Methane released as a result of landslides caused by a sea-level fall would warm the Earth, as would methane released from gas hydrates in Arctic sediments as they become warmed during a sea-level rise. This global warming might counteract cooling trends and thereby stabilize climatic fluctuation, or it could exacerbate climatic warming and thereby destabilize the climate.
Results of USGS investigations indicate that methane hydrates possess unique acoustic properties.
The velocity of sound in hydrate is very high, and therefore the velocity of sound in the surface layer of hydrate-cemented sediments also is high. Specific acoustic characteristics of hydrate-cemented sediments are not well known and require further study. Such information has significant implications in the use of sonar devices for defense, seismic exploration, and research.
Realizing the importance of methane hydrates in marine sediments, the USGS has focused work on selected areas where hydrates are known to be common, and where the influences of hydrates on energy resources, climate, and seafloor stability can be analyzed.
At this stage, it is important for USGS scientists to learn how the hydrates form, evolve, and break down, how they affect sediments, and what factors control their concentration at certain locations, as well as to explore for new hydrate accumulations. Cooperation with other Federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for bathymetry studies, the Department of Energy for application of hydrate gas extraction technology, and the U.S. Navy for acoustic studies, will enhance the success of future work.
For more information please contact: Dr. William Dillon, USGS, Woods Hole, MA 02543 (508) 457-2224 or Dr. Keith Kvenvolden, USGS, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 354-3213
September 1992
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:VBp_pQvzE6AJ:marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.htm....
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