: Paleoclimatology: clathrate

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clathrate

A clathrate is an inclusion compound consisting of a molecule or network of molecules known as "host molecules", which traps another molecule, known as an "included molecule". Methane hydrate, the "ice that catches fire", is the best known clathrate to the public. The host structure is a crystalline network of water molecules forming nano-cages trapping methane molecules. It is known as a source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as well as for other amazing properties. In the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it was the formation of clathrate in the material above the wellhead that prevented it from functioning. Clathrates are ice-like compounds in which methane and other gases are caged by water molecules. On freezing, water ordinarily forms ice in a hexagonal crystal structure. In the presence of sufficient methane and other gases, water crystallizes in a cubic lattice that traps the gas molecules. Interest in clathrates has arisen because they are stable over a limited range of temperatures and pressures found in sediments that underlie permafrost regions and deep oceans. Shifts in surface conditions, such as a lowering of sea level or warming of the surface, destabilize clathrates at depth, releasing the trapped gases. (Adapted from: G. J. MacDonald (1990). Climatic Change 16, 247-281 and translated from: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate)

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