Relationship between permafrost and gas hydrates on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Gas hydrates are a kind of new clean energy. They are found in low-temperature and high-pressure environments in permafrost and marine sediments. The permafrost on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which accounts for about half of the total area of the plateau, may be a potential region of gas hydrates. According to the permafrost characteristics of the plateau and thermodynamic conditions of formation of gas hydrates, the relationships of the permafrost thermal gradients and thickness with the thermodynamic conditions of formation of gas hydrates are discussed. In addition, the possibility of the existence of gas hydrates on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is also preliminarily analyzed. The results show that the permafrost regions on the plateau have basic thermodynamics conditions for formation of gas hydrates. The best thermodynamics condition is that the thermal gradient of permafrost is close to or slightly higher than that of thawed soils near the permafrost bottom, and the lower the thermal gradient of thawed soils, the more easily gas hydrates will be formed. It is estimated that the shallowest burial depth of the top of the gas hydrate layer is -74 m and that the deepest bottom of the layer is up to one thousand meters.