Natural gas hydrate occurrence and detection in the Sea of Okhotsk

The Sea of Okhotsk is the unique area providing the highest methane production rate of the northern hemisphere. The area of focused fluid venting offshore the NE Sakhalin continental slope was investigated during the CHAOS (Hydro-Carbon Hydrate Accumulations in the Okhotsk Sea) expeditions onboard of RV "Akademik Lavrentyev" In 2003, 2005 and 2006. The International Research Project CHAOS (Russia-Korea-Japan) aimed at the study of gas hydrate formation processes associated with the fluid venting in the Sea of Okhotsk. Several new gas hydrate accumulations were discovered during the cruise. Hydrate-associated structures have been named as KOPRI, VNIIOKeangeologia, POI and KIT (the names of cruise participant institutes) Some of hydrate-bearing cores contain big amount of gas hydrates: massive gas hydrate layers (up to 35cm thick) were recovered. The shallowest submarine gas hydrate accumulations in the world (at the depth less then 400m) were discovered during the cruise.