Conditions of gas hydrate formation in the Sea of Okhotsk

During the expedition of R/V Morskoi Geofizik in 1988 (cruise 34), the scientists from the Pacific Insti tute of Oceanology, Far East Branch, Russian Acad emy of Sciences (POI FEB RAS), discovered the first emission of methane bubbles from the bottom sedi ments into seawater over the northeastern slope of Sakhalin Island (Sea of Okhotsk) [1]. This finding marked the beginning of intense studies in this region in the search for both methane bubble flux from the bot tom sediments into seawater and gas hydrates [1, 2]. Beginning from 1998, the expeditions were organized within the international projects: RussianGerman (KOMEX, 19982004), RussianJapaneseKorean (CHAOS, 20032006, and SAKHALIN, 20072012, 20132017). The main objective of this study is inves tigation of the conditions of gas hydrate formation and destruction in the Sea of Okhotsk as the scientific basis for introducing new technologies in the search for sub marine hydrates and extraction of methane.