Sensitivity and Resolution of Controlled-Source Electromagnetic Method for Gas Hydrate Stable Zone

Abstract

Natural gas hydrate is one of the most important clean energies and part of carbon cycle, due to the least carbon content. Natural gas hydrates depend on high pressure and low temperatures, located under seabed or permafrost. Small changes in temperature and pressure may lead gas hydrates to separate into water and gas, commonly as methane. As a powerful greenhouse gas, methane is much stronger than carbon dioxide. Therefore, it is necessary to detect the gas hydrates stable zone (GHSZ) before the methane gas escapes from GHSZ. Marine controlled source electromagnetic method (CSEM) is a useful tool to detect gas hydrate in offshore. The results from 3D CSEM method are a resistivity cube to describe the distribution of gas hydrates. In order to study the detectability of CSEM method, we simulate the sensitivity and resolution of marine CSEM synthetic data. By using the sensitivity and resolution, a simple statement may be quickly judged on the existence and occurrence range of the natural gas hydrate. In this paper, we compare the resolution of marine CSEM method with various transverse resistance. This information may help researchers find out whether the GHSZ exists or not.