Clathrate

In other words, clathrate hydrates are clathrate compounds in which the host molecule is water and the guest molecule is typically a gas or liquid.

Diagram of Titan’s interior showing a methane clathrate crust over convecting ice shell.

An important example is methane hydrate (also known as gas hydrate, methane clathrate, etc.).

Clathrate hydrates are a class of solids in which gas molecules occupy "cages" made up of hydrogen-bonded water molecules.

Clathrate hydrates are not officially chemical compounds, as the sequestered molecules are never bonded to the lattice.

Even under these conditions, the clathrate dissociation is a slow process.

Furthermore, the Permian–Triassic extinction event has been suggested to have been caused by warming. citation citation citation Clathrate gun hypothesis main Clathrates are composites in which a lattice of one substance forms a cage around another.

Hydrogen clathrate is likely to form in condensation nebulae for gas giants.

Methane extracted from methane clathrate is therefore a candidate for future fuels.

Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, so a methane eruption ("clathrate gun") could cause rapid global warming or make it much more severe if the eruption was itself caused by global warming.

Nonpolar molecules such as methane can form clathrate hydrates with water, especially under high pressure.

Solid neon clathrate hydrate was produced from water ice and neon gas at pressures 0.35–0.48 GPa and temperatures ca. –30 °C. citation Ne atoms are not bonded to water and can freely move through this material.

The average methane clathrate hydrate composition is 1 mole of methane for every 5.75 moles of water.

The clathrates in these deep deposits are thought to have formed in situ from the microbially produced methane, since the δ 13 C values of clathrate and surrounding dissolved methane are similar.

The energetic particles tend to sputter water ice, decompose methane trapped in ice as clathrate hydrate and darken other organics, leaving a dark, carbon-rich residue behind.

The moons that formed in such a subnebula would contain less water ice (with CO and N 2 trapped as clathrate) and more rock, explaining the higher density.

The term cryostasis was introduced to name the reversible preservation technology for live biological objects which is based on using clathrate -forming gaseous substances under increased hydrostatic pressure and hypothermic temperatures.

This is highly undesirable, because the clathrate crystals might agglomerate and plug the line citation and cause flow assurance failure and damage valves and instrumentation.