Results of 20 years of searching and studying gas hydrates in Lake Baikal

Abstract

The 20-year history of studying the near-surface accumulations of gas hydrates in Lake Baikal revealed the same pattern of their formation and distribution in both marine environments and a freshwater body. However, Lake Baikal has its own features of the coexistence of gas hydrates with different structures and the causes of occurrence of hydrate-bearing mud volcanoes, which have been found and described nowhere in the world.