Soil properties of the shallow type methane hydrate-bearing sediments in the Lake Baikal

摘要

The purpose of this study is to understand the soil properties of grounds contained shallow type methane hydrates. For this study, the surveys were conducted in the Lake Baikal, Russia in 2005-2007, existed shallow type methane hydrates, and the several kinds of tests (physical and mechanical tests) were preformed for the lake-bottom sediments. The tested samples were collected from the mud volcano ground contained shallow type methane hydrates and the reference ground at same area. From the results, it was found that the reference samples in the Lake Baikal have no marked differences in the soil properties of the sediment obtained from other sea-bottom areas. On the other hand, the strengths and shear modulus of the mud volcano samples obtained from the on-board tests were lower than those of the reference samples.