A mini-workshop to define scientific strategies and next steps for optimizing the OOI-node on Hydrate Ridge

海洋天然气水合物构成了一个巨大的近海天然气储层。它们提供了潜在的大量未开发的能源资源，但也存在严重的潜在大陆斜坡滑坡危险，因为它们在海水变暖时分解并破坏斜坡沉积物的稳定，可能产生毁灭性的海啸。这次关于海洋天然气水合物的研讨会支持美国科学家参加为期1.5天的研讨会，旨在展示美国西北海岸水合物山脊上由美国国家科学基金会资助的新的海洋观测倡议（OOI）电缆基础设施的基础设施和能力。研讨会提供了一个讨论科学和科学问题的场所，这些问题可以在水合物山脊节点上解决，水合物山脊节点是电缆天文台三个仪器站点之一。水合物脊节点最初被设想为一个自然实验室，在那里可以详细检查动态天然气水合物系统的时间演变，以确定甲烷从海底进入海洋的通量，并了解与天然气水合物形成和解离相关的生物地球化学耦合。OOI水合物岭研讨会将于2016年3月4日至5日在同一地点举行，紧接着在德克萨斯州加尔维斯顿举行的第四届戈登天然气水合物研究会议。研讨会的时间和地点被设计为尽可能节省成本，利用戈登会议与会者的旅行，他们将额外停留1.5天来参加这个研讨会。来自NSF的资金将用于补贴额外的会议日，并支持主要研究人员的参与，否则他们可能不会参加戈登会议，但他们的投入有助于生成现场调查数据，并在OOI的原始创始文件中定义水合物岭节点的研究目标。还将讨论自最初的指导性科学文件以来所产生的丰富的知识和技术进步。此外，还将讨论利用这一新设施优化科学回报的策略。研讨会的广泛影响包括对能源、气候和地质灾害的潜在影响，并与生物、化学、物理、永久冻土科学、海洋科学、岩土工程和石油工程有着密切的联系。

Marine gas hydrates comprise a vast offshore reservoir of natural gas. They provide a potential significant untapped energy resource and also present serious potential continental slope landslide hazards capable of generating devastating tsunamis as they decompose and destabilize slope sediments as seawater warms. This workshop on natural marine gas hydrates supports the participation of US scientists at a 1.5-day workshop aimed at showcasing the infrastructure and capabilities of the new NSF-funded and operational Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) cabled infrastructure at Hydrate Ridge off the coast of the northwestern US. The workshop provides a venue for discussion of science and scientific questions that can be tackled at the Hydrate Ridge node, one of three instrumented sites on the cabled observatory. The Hydrate Ridge node was originally envisioned as a natural laboratory where the temporal evolution of dynamic gas hydrate systems could be examined in detail to determine fluxes of methane from the seafloor into the ocean and understand the biogeochemical coupling associated with gas-hydrate formation and dissociation. The OOI Hydrate Ridge workshop will be held March 4th and 5th, 2016 at the same location and immediately following 4th Gordon Research Conference on Natural Gas Hydrates in Galveston Texas. The timing and location of the workshop were designed to be as cost effective as possible by leveraging off the travel of Gordon Conference attendees who will stay an additional 1.5 days to attend this workshop. Funding from NSF will be used to help subsidize the additional conference days and support the participation of key researchers who may otherwise not be attending the Gordon Conference, but whose input was instrumental in generating site survey data and defining the research objectives for the Hydrate Ridge node in OOI's original founding documents. Also to be discussed will be the wealth of knowledge and technological advances that have taken place since the initial guiding scientific documents. Strategies for optimizing the scientific returns that can be made possible by this new facility will also be discussed. Broader impacts of the workshop include potential impacts on energy, climate, and geohazards with deep linkages into biology, chemistry, physics, permafrost science, marine science, geotechnical engineering, and petroleum engineering.