Methane hydrates are 3D ice-lattice structures with natural
gas locked inside. If methane hydrate is either warmed or depressurized, it
will release the trapped natural gas.
While many of us think of the Arctic as home to polar bears
and year-round freezing temperatures, it is also home to a potentially huge
source of natural gas called methane hydrates.
Methane hydrates are 3D ice-lattice structures with natural
gas locked inside, and they can be found under the Arctic permafrost and in
ocean sediments along nearly every continental shelf in the world. The
substance looks remarkably like white ice, but it does not behave like ice. If
methane hydrate is either warmed or depressurized, it will release the trapped
natural gas.