HYDRATES OF METHANE AND HYDROGEN

Gas hydrates are icelike solids composed of guest molecules or atoms of gases trapped inside the cages formed within a crystalline host framework (clathrate) of hydrogenbonded water molecules. The report will mainly be devoted to various aspects of the formation and decomposition of methane hydrates, large deposits of which are found in permafrost and under the ocean floor on the continental shelf, as well as hydrogen hydrates, the transformations of which should play a significant role in the evolution of ice satellites of giant planets.