[M-IS26] Gas hydrates in environmental-resource sciences

[MIS26-02] An overview and perspective on marine environmental assessment for development of shallow methane hydrate.

★Invited Papers

*Masahiro Suzumura¹ (1.AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

Keywords:shallow methane hydrate, environmental assessment, environmental baseline survey

Shallow methane hydrate (S-MH) occurs in massive and nodule forms in muddy sediments at or just beneath seafloor with water depths of 500 m or deeper. Around the Japanese Islands, S-MH have been found mainly in the eastern margin of the Japan Sea as well as in the areas off Abashiri, Hidaka and Tokachi, Hokkaido, and very recently near the Tanegashima Island located in the south of Kyusyu. In the Plan for the Development of Marine Energy and Mineral Resources revised by METI in 2019, S-MH was regarded for the first time as one of the important marine resources to contribute to a secure supply of energy in Japan. Also, the Plan emphasized the need of technology developments towards the goal of commercialization of S-MH. On the other hand, it is evitable that the mining and production activities of S-MH have substantial environmental impacts on deep-sea marine ecosystem and biogeochemical processes. Environmental assessments are essential for sustainable S-MH development and consensus building with the society. We started environmental assessment studies for S-MH development since 2019. In this presentation, an overview and perspective of environmental assessment of S-MH development as well as some observation results in preliminary baseline surveys in the areas off Sakata and Joetsu in Japan Sea.
This study was conducted as a part of the methane hydrate research project funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan.