Spacing and amplitude of IR temperature anomalies and hydrate content of sediments from ODP Leg 304 sites (Table 1)

Large uncertainties about the energy resource potential and role in global climate change of gas hydrates result from uncertainty about how much hydrate is contained in marine sediments. During Leg 204 of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) to the accretionary complex of the Cascadia subduction zone, we sampled the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) from the seafloor to its base in contrasting geological settings defined by a 3D seismic survey. By integrating results from different methods, including several new techniques developed for Leg 204, we overcome the problem of spatial under-sampling inherent in robust methods traditionally used for estimating the hydrate content of cores and obtain a high-resolution, quantitative estimate of the total amount and spatial variability of gas hydrate in this structural system. […]

关于天然气水合物在能源潜力及全球气候变化中所扮演角色的巨大不确定性，源于对海洋沉积物中含有的水合物数量的不确定性。在海洋钻探计划（ODP）第204航次对卡斯卡迪亚俯冲带增生复合体的研究过程中，我们针对海底至其基底的气体水合物稳定性区（GHSZ）进行了取样，该取样在由3D地震勘探所定义的对比地质环境中进行。通过整合不同方法的结果，包括为第204航次开发的几种新技术，我们克服了传统用于估算岩芯中水合物含量时所固有的空间欠采样问题，并获得了该结构系统中天然气水合物总量及其空间变异性的高分辨率、定量估计。