Gas Hydrate: Environmental and Climate Impacts

Dear Colleagues,

In the last few decades, gas hydrates have been considered as a possible reservoir of natural gas, even if the actual global estimate is very rough, and also they are related to global changes and geohazards. In fact, the increasing attention regarding gas hydrates is increasing from: (1) the assessment of methane hydrates as a new ‘clean’ energy source, (2) the relationship between gas hydrate and global climate, and (3) the geological hazards related to the gas hydrate. Gas hydrates can be related to environmental risks because their dissociation can affect seafloor stability and release methane (and associated gases) into the water column. In fact, methane is an important greenhouse gas and any release of methane to the atmosphere would have an impact on climate change.

Generally, gas hydrate deposits are investigated using geophysical methods. The seismic technique, which is the most used, allows detecting a clear indicator of the hydrate and free gas accumulations, known as bottom simulating reflector. Moreover, the seismic data provides information about the geometry of the main geological structures, allowing possible explanations of the presence/absence of gas hydrate. In the last few years, the integration of geophysical (mainly seismic and electromagnetic data), geochemical, and heat-flow data allowed detecting and characterising gas hydrate and free gas volumes and distribution in the sediments. Thus, reviews of extensive geophysical surveys and direct measurements combined with geological interpretation and theoretical modelling will increase our understanding on the occurrence, distribution, and concentration of gas hydrate and the underlying free gas beneath the ocean bottom and the permafrost.

This Special Issue on gas hydrate offers the scientific community an opportunity to illustrate their research. Therefore, we invite you to submit original research and review articles on this topic.

Dr. Umberta Tinivella
Dr. Michela Giustiniani
Dr. Ivan de la Cruz Vargas Cordero
Dr. Atanas Vasilev
Guest Editors

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