Widespread gas hydrate on Earth’s continental margins

Over the last decade, our research team at Ohio State University has analyzed geophysical well logs in over 1000 petroleum industry wells for natural gas hydrate. This is the largest well log assessment for gas hydrate and includes a number of basins: the northern Gulf of Mexico, offshore Western Australia, the Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea and the UK Atlantic Margin.

We find evidence for gas hydrate in nearly half of industry wells, indicating that hydrate is widespread in sediments on Earth’s continental margins. Hydrate typically occurs in discrete, cm to m-scale intervals with depth and is at relatively low concentration (~35% saturation or less in a hydrate bearing layer). In addition, we observe that most of these hydrate bearing layers are not near the base of hydrate stability.  

At most locations in our assessment, hydrate is not susceptible to current anthropogenic warming. However, our assessment lacks information about a crucial location on continental margins because this interval is not typical measured by industry well logs: the updip edge of hydrate stability. The updip edge of hydrate stability (~300-500 m water depth) is a critical, largely uncharacterized zone where ocean warming can affect hydrate stability. Scientific ocean drilling is required to characterize the global gas hydrate occurrence and modern seafloor carbon flux along this sensitive boundary.