CAREER: Carbon storage in widespread low-saturation gas hydrate systems

GSTDTAP

项目编号	1752882
	CAREER: Carbon storage in widespread low-saturation gas hydrate systems
	Ann Cook
主持机构	Ohio State University
项目开始年	2018
	2018-08-01
项目结束日期	2023-07-31
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Continuing grant
项目经费	107341(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Natural gas hydrates are minerals that look like ice, but contain a highly concentrated amount of methane, also known as natural gas. Natural gas hydrates form on the seafloor and in marine sediments beneath the seafloor when water depths exceed ~500 m. Worldwide, marine methane gas hydrates are estimated to store 20% to 50% of Earth?s mobile carbon. Perturbations to temperature and pressure cause gas hydrates to dissociate into methane gas and water. Due to the large reservoir of carbon in methane gas hydrates, the metastability of these minerals, and the fact that methane is a strong greenhouse gas, many scientists have theorized that methane liberated from natural gas hydrates may be a key player in many of Earth?s large global warming events. However, the amount of gas hydrate locked in marine sediments is not well known, with present estimates varying by four orders of magnitude. This research uses well logs from publicly accessible academic and industry geophysical information and well logs from cores drilled into marine sediments in conjunction with new mathematical approaches to evaluate, model, and estimate the amount of methane gas hydrates in a broad spectrum of different marine settings. This information is then used to provide crucial, first-time information on the occurrence, distribution, amount of naturally occurring methane gas hydrates in the seafloor, worldwide. Broader impacts of the work include information that can be used by the petroleum and natural gas industry in discovering and assessing economically feasible natural gas occurrences; the integration of research and education involving large numbers of students who will be involved in the data analysis and interpretation parts of the project; will complement previous gas hydrate assessments in the Gulf of Mexico; and complements a pending research cruise funded by the National Science Foundation- supported International Ocean Discovery Program. The research will help support an investigator whose demographic is underrepresented in the sciences, will support the development of video field trips, and provide important information to students on careers in geology outside of academia. The assessments and estimates of natural methane gas hydrates are based on already existing data from petroleum industry geophysical well logs from offshore locations worldwide that already exists, but has not been systematically analyzed for natural gas hydrate. As a matter of course in exploration studies, the petroleum industry collects well log data in the shallow interval that coincides with gas hydrate stability, but often ignores it because their interest in in deeper seated major liquid petroleum plays, not gas hydrate occurrences. Up to now, scientists have not exploited this vast treasure trove of data. This research project focuses on these valuable, but underutilized data. Research will involve the investigator, her graduate students, and her Borehole Geophysics class. They will examine and analyze well logs from the north Atlantic, the North Sea, offshore Western Australia, and the Gulf of Mexico using novel mathematical and conceptual tools that combine the petrophysical analysis of petroleum industry well logs with numerical modeling and geochemistry measurements to help constrain and understand the distribution and saturation of natural gas hydrates worldwide. The resulting information will be used to inform global climate models and provide accurate information on the influence of gas hydrate on global climate change. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/72940
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Ann Cook.CAREER: Carbon storage in widespread low-saturation gas hydrate systems.2018.