Arctic Ocean Bathymetry: A Necessary Geospatial Framework

Most ocean science relies on a geospatial infrastructure that is built from bathymetry data collected from ships underway, archived, and converted into maps and digital grids. Bathymetry, the depth of the seafloor, besides having vital importance to geology and navigation, is a fundamental element in studies of deep water circulation, tides, tsunami forecasting, upwelling, fishing resources, wave action, sediment transport, environmental change, and slope stability, as well as in site selection for platforms, cables, and pipelines, waste disposal, and mineral extraction. Recent developments in multibeam sonar mapping have so dramatically increased the resolution with which the seafloor can be portrayed that previous representations must be considered obsolete. Scientific conclusions based on sparse bathymetric information should be re-examined and refined. At this time only about 11% of the Arctic Ocean has been mapped with multibeam; the rest of its seafloor area is portrayed through mathematical interpolation using a very sparse depth-sounding database. In order for all Arctic marine activities to benefit fully from the improvement that multibeam provides, the entire Arctic Ocean must be multibeam-mapped, a task that can be accomplished only through international coordination and collaboration that includes the scientific community, naval institutions, and industry.Une grande partie de l’océanographie s’appuie sur l’infrastructure géospatiale établie à partir de données bathymétriques recueillies par des navires en route, données qui sont ensuite archivées et transformées en cartes et en grilles numériques. En plus de revêtir une importance essentielle sur le plan de la géologie et de la navigation, la bathymétrie, soit la profondeur du plancher sous-marin, est un élément fondamental de l’étude de la circulation en eaux profondes, des marées, de la prévision des tsunamis, des remontées d’eau, des ressources halieutiques, de l’action des vagues, du transport de sédiments, des changements environnementaux et de la stabilité des talus, en plus de la sélection de l’emplacement des plateformes, des câbles, des pipelines ainsi que de l’élimination des déchets et l’extraction minière. En raison des progrès récents réalisés en matière de cartographie par sonars multifaisceaux, la résolution avec laquelle le plancher sous-marin peut être représenté s’est améliorée à un point tel que les anciennes représentations doivent être considérées comme désuètes. Les conclusions scientifiques fondées sur des données bathymétriques clairsemées devraient être réexaminées et raffinées. Pour l’instant, seulement environ 11 % de l’océan Arctique a été cartographié à l’aide de multifaisceaux. Le reste de son plancher sous-marin est représenté au moyen d’une interpolation mathématique faisant appel à des données très clairsemées de sondages en profondeur. Pour que toutes les activités maritimes de l’Arctique bénéficient pleinement des améliorations qu’offrent les multifaisceaux, la totalité de l’océan Arctique doit être cartographiée à l’aide de multifaisceaux, tâche qui ne peut s’accomplir qu’en présence d’une coordination et d’une collaboration internationales faisant appel à la communauté scientifique, aux institutions navales et à l’industrie

Arctic Ocean Bathymetry: A Necessary Geospatial Framework

Most ocean science relies on a geospatial infrastructure that is built from bathymetry data collected from ships underway, archived, and converted into maps and digital grids. Bathymetry, the depth of the seafloor, besides having vital importance to geology and navigation, is a fundamental element in studies of deep water circulation, tides, tsunami forecasting, upwelling, fishing resources, wave action, sediment transport, environmental change, and slope stability, as well as in site selection for platforms, cables, and pipelines, waste disposal, and mineral extraction. Recent developments in multibeam sonar mapping have so dramatically increased the resolution with which the seafloor can be portrayed that previous representations must be considered obsolete. Scientific conclusions based on sparse bathymetric information should be re-examined and refined. At this time only about 11% of the Arctic Ocean has been mapped with multibeam; the rest of its seafloor area is portrayed through mathematical interpolation using a very sparse depth-sounding database. In order for all Arctic marine activities to benefit fully from the improvement that multibeam provides, the entire Arctic Ocean must be multibeam-mapped, a task that can be accomplished only through international coordination and collaboration that includes the scientific community, naval institutions, and industry.Une grande partie de l’océanographie s’appuie sur l’infrastructure géospatiale établie à partir de données bathymétriques recueillies par des navires en route, données qui sont ensuite archivées et transformées en cartes et en grilles numériques. En plus de revêtir une importance essentielle sur le plan de la géologie et de la navigation, la bathymétrie, soit la profondeur du plancher sous-marin, est un élément fondamental de l’étude de la circulation en eaux profondes, des marées, de la prévision des tsunamis, des remontées d’eau, des ressources halieutiques, de l’action des vagues, du transport de sédiments, des changements environnementaux et de la stabilité des talus, en plus de la sélection de l’emplacement des plateformes, des câbles, des pipelines ainsi que de l’élimination des déchets et l’extraction minière. En raison des progrès récents réalisés en matière de cartographie par sonars multifaisceaux, la résolution avec laquelle le plancher sous-marin peut être représenté s’est améliorée à un point tel que les anciennes représentations doivent être considérées comme désuètes. Les conclusions scientifiques fondées sur des données bathymétriques clairsemées devraient être réexaminées et raffinées. Pour l’instant, seulement environ 11 % de l’océan Arctique a été cartographié à l’aide de multifaisceaux. Le reste de son plancher sous-marin est représenté au moyen d’une interpolation mathématique faisant appel à des données très clairsemées de sondages en profondeur. Pour que toutes les activités maritimes de l’Arctique bénéficient pleinement des améliorations qu’offrent les multifaisceaux, la totalité de l’océan Arctique doit être cartographiée à l’aide de multifaisceaux, tâche qui ne peut s’accomplir qu’en présence d’une coordination et d’une collaboration internationales faisant appel à la communauté scientifique, aux institutions navales et à l’industrie

Co-authorship pattern and Collaboration in Colorectal Cancer Research

The study focused on authorship pattern and collaboration in colorectal cancer research output as reflected in the web of science database for the period 2010-2017. Using various scientometrics approaches, the study presents co-authorship and collaborative patterns for different countries, institutions, and authors. We find multi and mega-author contributions which are increasing and dominate the CRC research. In the case of collaborative patterns, we found domestic collaboration which dominates the CRC research compared to international collaborations. Institution wise we find mostly domestic inter-institutional collaboration. Country pair-wise collaboration pattern shows that the US is the most preferred country for collaborations and the author-wise collaborative pattern in CRC research shows that the collaboration of domestic or local inter-institutional collaboration between the authors and highest possible combinations

The Future Ocean: Final report = Ozean der Zukunft: Abschlussbericht

2006 - 201

Cruise Report: EX-17-11 Gulf of Mexico 2017 (ROV and Mapping)

From November 29, 2017 to December 21, 2017, the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) and partners conducted a telepresence-enabled ocean exploration expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline data and information and to improve knowledge about unexplored and poorly understood deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico 2017 (EX-17-11) expedition was part of a series of expeditions between 2017 and 2018 that explored deepwater areas in the Gulf of Mexico. During 23 days at sea, 17 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives were completed off the Western Florida Escarpment and in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. Over 93 hours of ROV bottom time were logged at depths between 300 and 2,321 meters. Over 20,000 square kilometers of seafloor were mapped. A total of 138 biological and 11 geological samples were collected. The expedition gathered over 280,000 live video views worldwide and the OER website received over 35,600 views. A core onshore science team of over 80 participants from around the world collaborated and supported real-time ocean exploration science. The data associated with this expedition have been archived and are publicly available through the NOAA Archives

Mapping Gas Hydrate Dynamics in Porous Media : Experimental Studies of Gas Hydrates as a Source of CH4 and Sink for CO2

The world needs more energy and the energy has to be more sustainable with respect to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This is the backdrop for studying the diverse applications of gas hydrates in nature. The ice-like substance is found worldwide as inclusions in the pore space of subsurface sediments and may affect the global energy supply and climate profoundly: 1) The large amounts of hydrate-bound natural gas, predominantly methane gas (CH4), could provide the world with energy for decades. Global consumption of natural gas is expected to increase with 45% by 2030 (IEA, 2018b). Countries like Japan, China, India and South Korea are seeking to increase their energy security by developing natural gas production from subsurface accumulations of gas hydrates. 2) The natural affinity for CO2 to form gas hydrates in the shallow subsurface could increase the storage capacity and security of carbon sequestration. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere (or before it reaches the atmosphere) and subsequent long-term storage of the CO2 in the subsurface. The projections of the IPCC that seeks to limit global warming to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level rely on the use of CO2 removal from the atmosphere on the order of 100 – 1000 gigatonnes of CO2 (GtCO2) during this century (IPCC, 2018). The formation of CO2 hydrates could provide a self-sealing mechanism during CO2 storage in saline aquifers which would decrease the risk of CO2 leakage considerably. In both cases, fundamental knowledge about gas hydrates in porous media is needed. The scientific work presented in this thesis contributes to the understanding of CH4 and CO2 hydrates in sediments with special emphasis on phase transitions and fluid flow in hydrate-saturated porous rock. Coupling the fluid flow with gas hydrate saturation and growth pattern is important to control the production rate of CH4 gas from CH4 gas hydrates and to model the sealing capacity of CO2 gas hydrates. The rate and distribution of fluid flow during gas hydrate phase transitions in sediments were studied using a multiscale approach. Permeability measurements and quantitative mapping of water saturation were conducted on cylindrical Bentheim sandstone core plugs by high-precision pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) recordings and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Pore-scale mapping of gas hydrate phase transitions was facilitated by etched silicon micromodels with pore networks replicating the geometry of real sandstone rock. The qualitative observations of phase transitions at pore-scale helped explain the flow rates measured at core-scale. This thesis consists of seven scientific papers presenting a detailed description of gas hydrates effect on fluid flow in porous media. The first step in every gas hydrate experiment is to establish gas hydrates in the pore space and this was particularly investigated in paper 1. The effect of heterogeneous water distribution on CH4 hydrate growth was resolved in Bentheim sandstone core plugs by MRI. The growth of CH4 hydrate was more profound in regions of the core plug saturated with high water content and the final CH4 hydrate distribution mirrored the initial water distribution. The same growth pattern of CH4 hydrate was observed in the micromodel in paper 2 and further developed into a conceptual growth model based on the initial pore-scale fluid distribution: A) A porous hydrate with encapsulated CH4 gas surrounded by a shell of CH4 hydrate formed in regions with high CH4 gas saturation. B) A solid nonporous hydrate with no CH4 gas formed in regions with low CH4 gas saturation. The final hydrate morphology was mainly governed by local availability of water and mass transfer of water/CH4 across the hydrate layer at the gas-water interface. In paper 3, the controlling mechanisms on the rate of CH4 gas recovery from CH4 hydrates were investigated via constant pressure dissociation in Bentheim sandstone core plugs. The maximum rate of CH4 gas recovery was governed by the CH4 hydrate saturation and the rate was highest in the CH4 hydrate saturation interval of 0.30 – 0.50 (frac.). The CH4 gas recovery was slower at higher CH4 hydrate saturation because of ineffective pressure transmission through the pore network and low relative permeability of the liberated CH4 gas. The relative permeability to CH4 (or CO2) in gas hydrate-filled sandstone rock was measured in paper 4. The addition of solid hydrates in the pore space reduced the effective permeability to both CH4 and CO2 at constant CH4 (or CO2) saturation. The fitting exponent, n, in the modified Brooks-Corey curve increased during hydrate growth for both CH4 and CO2. The exponent increased from 2.7 to 3.6 when CH4 hydrates formed in the pores and from 4.0 to 5.8 when CO2 hydrates formed. The effective permeability to CH4 (or CO2) was more sensitive to inclusion of hydrates in the pores at low CH4 (or CO2) saturations, most likely because the limited CH4 (or CO2) phase was more prone to become disconnected and capillary immobilized. The ability of CO2 hydrates to immobilize CO2 in water-saturated rock was explored in paper 5-7. The nature of CO2 hydrate sealing during CO2 injection was revealed at both micro- and core-scale in paper 5. Liquid CO2 was completely immobilized by surrounding CO2 hydrates that initially had formed at the CO2-water interface and then later crystallized the water phase into nonporous CO2 hydrates. The long-term sealing capability of the formed CO2 hydrates was tested for different rock core samples in paper 6-7. In quartz-dominated rock core plugs, the CO2 hydrate plug formed faster in tight rocks with low absolute permeability. Narrow pore throats in tight rocks were more easily obstructed by thin hydrate films that formed early in the nucleation process. The CO2 hydrate formed later in an Edwards limestone core plug (Kabs = 80 mD) than in a Bentheim sandstone core plug (Kabs = 1500 mD) despite having a lower absolute permeability. The leakage rate of CO2 through the CO2 hydrate plug was higher in the limestone core plug compared to the sandstone core plug. The CO2 hydrate self-sealing was therefore slower and less robust in carbonate rock compared to quartz-dominated rock

The Deep Sea and Sub-Seafloor Frontier

The deep sea and its sub-seafloor contain a vast reservoir of physical, mineral and biological resources that are rapidly coming into the window of exploitation. Assessing the opportunities and the risks involved requires a serious commitment to excellent deep sea research. There are numerous areas in this field in which Europe has cutting-edge technological potential. These include drilling and monitoring technology in the field of renewable energies such as geothermal, offshore wind and seafloor resources. Scientific ocean drilling will continue to play a valuable role, for example in the exploration of resource opportunities, in obtaining estimates for ecosystem and Earth climate sensitivity, or in improving understanding about the controlling factors governing processes and recurrence intervals of submarine geohazards. In Europe, there is also the scientific expertise needed to define a framework for policymakers for environmental protection measures and to carry out ecological impact assessments before, during and after commercial exploitation. Taking up these societal challenges will strengthen European scientific and educational networks and promote the development of world-class technology and industrial leadership.Published3.7. Dinamica del clima e dell'oceano4.6. Oceanografia operativa per la valutazione dei rischi in aree marineope

Gas hydrate technology: state of the art and future possibilities for Europe

Interest in natural gas hydrates has been steadily increasing over the last few decades, with the understanding that exploitation of this abundant unconventional source may help meet the ever-increasing energy demand and assist in reduction of CO2 emission (by replacing coal). Unfortunately, conventional technologies for oil and gas exploitation are not fully appropriate for the specific exploitation of gas hydrate. Consequently, the technology chain, from exploration through production to monitoring, needs to be further developed and adapted to the specific properties and conditions associated with gas hydrates, in order to allow for a commercially and environmentally sound extraction of gas from gas hydrate deposits. Various academic groups and companies within the European region have been heavily involved in theoretical and applied research of gas hydrate for more than a decade. To demonstrate this, Fig. 1.1 shows a selection of leading European institutes that are actively involved in gas hydrate research. A significant number of these institutes have been strongly involved in recent worldwide exploitation of gas hydrate, which are shown in Fig. 1.2 and summarized in Table 1.1. Despite the state of knowledge, no field trials have been carried out so far in European waters. MIGRATE (COST action ES1405) aims to pool together expertise of a large number of European research groups and industrial players to advance gas-hydrate related activity with the ultimate goal of preparing the setting for a field production test in European waters. This MIGRATE report presents an overview of current technologies related to gas hydrate exploration (Chapter 2), production (Chapter 3) and monitoring (Chapter 4), with an emphasis on European activity. This requires covering various activities within different disciplines, all of which contribute to the technology development needed for future cost-effective gas production. The report points out future research and work areas (Chapter 5) that would bridge existing knowledge gaps, through multinational collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches

RESOURCE CHARACTERIZATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF NATURAL GAS-HYDRATE AND ASSOCIATED FREE-GAS ACCUMULATIONS IN THE PRUDHOE BAY - KUPARUK RIVER AREA ON THE NORTH SLOPE OF ALASKA

Interim results are presented from the project designed to characterize, quantify, and determine the commercial feasibility of Alaska North Slope (ANS) gas-hydrate and associated free-gas resources in the Prudhoe Bay Unit (PBU), Kuparuk River Unit (KRU), and Milne Point Unit (MPU) areas. This collaborative research will provide practical input to reservoir and economic models, determine the technical feasibility of gas hydrate production, and influence future exploration and field extension of this potential ANS resource. The large magnitude of unconventional in-place gas (40-100 TCF) and conventional ANS gas commercialization evaluation creates industry-DOE alignment to assess this potential resource. This region uniquely combines known gas hydrate presence and existing production infrastructure. Many technical, economical, environmental, and safety issues require resolution before enabling gas hydrate commercial production. Gas hydrate energy resource potential has been studied for nearly three decades. However, this knowledge has not been applied to practical ANS gas hydrate resource development. ANS gas hydrate and associated free gas reservoirs are being studied to determine reservoir extent, stratigraphy, structure, continuity, quality, variability, and geophysical and petrophysical property distribution. Phase 1 will characterize reservoirs, lead to recoverable reserve and commercial potential estimates, and define procedures for gas hydrate drilling, data acquisition, completion, and production. Phases 2 and 3 will integrate well, core, log, and long-term production test data from additional wells, if justified by results from prior phases. The project could lead to future ANS gas hydrate pilot development. This project will help solve technical and economic issues to enable government and industry to make informed decisions regarding future commercialization of unconventional gas-hydrate resources