Research activities by the marine environment survey and assessment subgroup in the research consortium for methane hydrate resources (MH21 project) in Japan

Recently development of cheaper and cleaner energy sources has become a more important and urgent issue, because of the soaring crude oil price and environmental problems such as global warming. In this social context, to establish basic technologies and solve fundamental issues associated with environmental impact assessments, the Environmental Impact Assessment Group of the Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate Resources (MH21 research consortium) in Japan has conducted a number of research and development activities since FY2001. These activities include: (1) surveys of the marine environment that will form the basis of environmental impact assessments associated with methane hydrate development; (2) the development of core technologies to monitor deep-sea environments;( 3) research of major issues related to environmental impact assessments; and (4) the development of numerical models to predict the deformation of seafloor sediments containing methane hydrates. In this paper introduce of the research activities by the marine environment survey and assessment subgroup in the research consortium for methane hydrate resources in Japan.