Natural gas hydrate in the foraminifera
Natural gas hydrates are clathrate hydrates that consist of water molecules and natural gas molecules (major constituent: methane). They are mainly distributed along continental slopes of the oceans or permafrost regions on land. Highly saturated hydrate reservoirs may be ideal alternative energy resources, which makes them an important target area for the exploitation and utilization of natural gas hydrates. Influenced and restricted by the grain size of the sediments, natural gas hydrates are mainly found in the coarse sands, while in fine-grained sediments, the hydrate rarely occurs, or the saturation of the gas hydrates would be relatively low. However, among drilling projects in 2007 in the Shenhu area, South China Sea (SCS), the average sand content in the hydrate reservoir was only around 1.4 to 4.24 percent, and the hydrate saturation was as high as 20 to 40 percent. While related to the supply of gas sources and tectonic...