What is Gas Hydrate? - Gas Hydrate is an ice-like crystalline solid formed from a mixture of water and natural gas, usually methane. They occur in the pore spaces of sediments, and may form cements, nodes or layers.

 Gas (Methane) Hydrates -- A New Frontier - Methane trapped in marine sediments as a hydrate represents such an immense carbon reservoir that it must be considered a dominant factor in estimating unconventional energy resources; the role of methane as a 'greenhouse' gas also must be carefully assessed.

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Geological Survey of Canada - This ESS Program contributes to the development of gas hydrates as an unconventional energy source, in order to ensure a secure energy supply.

Gas Hydrate: What is it? - A gas hydrate is a crystalline solid; its building blocks consist of a gas molecule surrounded by a cage of water molecules. Thus it is similar to ice, except that the crystalline structure is stabilized by the guest gas molecule within the cage of water molecules. Many gases have molecular sizes suitable to form hydrate, including such naturally occurring gases as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and several low-carbon-number hydrocarbons, but most marine gas hydrates that have been analyzed are methane hydrates.