{"id":498,"date":"2016-05-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/cage\/2016\/05\/03\/drilling-for-gas-hydrates-in-the-arctic\/"},"modified":"2023-04-04T10:33:36","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T08:33:36","slug":"drilling-for-gas-hydrates-in-the-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/cage\/2016\/05\/03\/drilling-for-gas-hydrates-in-the-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"Drilling for gas hydrates in the Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"

We don’t know enough\u00a0about the amounts\u00a0of methane stored under the sea floor. CAGE is going on a summer drilling campaign to\u00a0make better calculations on quantities of this potent greenhouse gas in the form of ice – so called hydrate.<\/h4>\n

Text: Maja Sojtaric<\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

Estimates on how much of the greenhouse gas methane is stored beneath the seabed of the Arctic in the form of methane ice differ substantially. The most cited global estimate is 10,000 gigatonnes (Gt). A gigatonne\u00a0is a billion tons.<\/p>\n

But a recent calculation suggests that we rather should be talking about a global estimate of\u00a074 000 Gt methane stored as hydrates.<\/p>\n

– The quantification of these deposits is important for climate and environmental research. When they are stable these hydrates keep large quantities of methane gas in check. But methods to predict the stability of these hydrates, especially in the Arctic, is also quite uncertain. And if they melt, they may\u00a0release large amounts of the powerful greenhouse gas and can alter the marine environment<\/a>, says CAGE director J\u00fcrgen Mienert.<\/p>\n

Drilling in the ocean floor at 1200 meter depth<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Vastnesa
CAGE will be drilling for gas hydrates on Vestnesa, an ocean ridge offshore Svalbard archipelago. Illustration: CAGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To make more precise calculations researchers must use\u00a0advanced drilling technology. In July, CAGE will undertake an expedition\u00a0to the ocean ridge Vestnesa offshore Svalbard, where they will\u00a0drill for gas hydrates at\u00a0water depths down to 1,200 meters. Vestnesa\u00a0is a part of the ridge system of the oceans, which are undersea mountain chains \u00a0formed by tectonic\u00a0movement and stretching around the globe.<\/p>\n

The expedition\u00a0is a collaboration with MARUM<\/a>\u00a0in Germany, and their mobile drilling rig MeBo\u00a0<\/a>will\u00a0be used to acquire the\u00a0samples.<\/p>\n

The aim is to see how much hydrates exist in the area. But the scientists also want to see how methane hydrates are formed, whether it is by the decomposition of organic matter or whether it comes from chemical reactions in the Earth’s crust, deep under the ocean floor.<\/p>\n

– If \u00a0the methane is mainly abiotic, ie not created by the decomposition of organic matter, we will assume that there are larger amounts of gas than previously calculated along the thousands of kilometers of the ocean ridges, states\u00a0Mienert.<\/p>\n

Planning for more drilling operations in the Arctic\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Foto:
Ships such as the Japanese vessel Chikyu can drill several kilometers into the ocean floor. In comparison the MeBo can drill up to 50 metering the ocean floor. Photo: JAMSTEC<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the long term CAGE plans more drilling in the Arctic and will apply to join the Integrated Ocean Discovery Program\u00a0(IODP)<\/a>. The hope is to use the Japanese ship Chikyu, which recently drilled \u00a0gas hydrates outside India. They carried out the largest expedition for mapping of gas hydrates ever, with great success. Several other vessels may also be relevant. India, Japan, China and Canada are countries where gas hydrates are increasingly mapped with a perspective\u00a0of future extraction and energy production.<\/p>\n

– We hope that we can use this expertise in the Arctic areas also, for research on environmental and climate impact of methane emissions from gas hydrates, stresses\u00a0CAGE director J\u00fcrgen Mienert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t know enough\u00a0about the amounts\u00a0of methane stored under the sea floor. CAGE is going … <\/p>\n

Read more \u00abDrilling for gas hydrates in the Arctic\u00bb<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123546,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDrilling for gas hydrates in the Arctic - CAGE, Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.uit.no\/cage\/2016\/05\/03\/drilling-for-gas-hydrates-in-the-arctic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drilling for gas hydrates in the Arctic - CAGE, Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We don’t know enough\u00a0about the amounts\u00a0of methane stored under the sea floor. 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