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Scientists from Skoltech (part of the VEB.RF Group) and the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences have published the results of laboratory and numerical experiments in the International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering.

For the first time, the experiments modeled one-sided heating of frozen sand containing metastable methane hydrate. The results will help predict more accurately how gas hydrate-saturated frozen ground in the Arctic will behave when heated, helping assess the risks of gas emissions, design wells correctly and prevent unexpected ground subsidence.

For the first time, in both a laboratory experiment and a computer model, researchers were able to simultaneously trace the dynamics of two processes—ice melting and gas hydrate dissociation—in a frozen sand sample heated from one end. They found that pore hydrate dissociation begins earlier than ice melting: the temperature difference between these processes can reach 1.1°C or more.

Gas hydrates are solid compounds of water and gas. In Arctic permafrost, they can occur in pores together with ice. If a hydrate remains at a temperature below zero where, under equilibrium conditions, it can no longer be stable, it is called metastable. Such a hydrate is highly sensitive to heating and can dissociate, releasing methane gas.

During the development of Arctic fields, wells pass through permafrost and heat it, so it is important to know how quickly and in what order these changes will occur.

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