A Preliminary Study on Submarine Slope Failure of Gas Hydrate-bering Sediments

가스 하이드레이트가 매장된 해저사면의 붕괴에 관한 기초적 연구

The influence of gas hydrate dissociation on submarine slope stability was studied in this paper. Gas hydrates are stable under high pressure and low temperature conditions. Once gas hydrate dissociates due to natural or human activities, it generates large amount of gas and water. During gas hydrate dissociation, a pore pressure between soil particles increases and results in the loss of an effective stress and degradation of soil stiffness. A pore pressures model was proposed to calculated excess pore pressures generated by gas hydrate dissociation at the Storegga Slide. A slope stability analysis for the Storegga Slide using a two dimensional finite difference method was carried out by considering excess pore pressures due to gas hydrate dissociation. Since the excess pore pressure calculated by the proposed method resulted in the considerable loss of stiffness and strength in slope, a submarine slope failure occurred at the Storegga slide was well simulated.