Natural gas hydrate is ice‐like mixture of gas (mostly methane) and water that is widely found in sediments along the world's continental margins and within and beneath permafrost and glaciers in a near‐surface depth interval where the pressure is sufficiently high and temperature sufficiently low for gas hydrate to be stable. We categorize the myriad of geological gas hydrate deposits into five characteristic types. We then review the multiple quantitative models that have proposed to describe the genesis of these deposits and describe how each may have formed. We emphasize the importance of coupling multiphase flow (free gas and liquid water) and multicomponent reactive transport with geological history to describe the dynamical processes of gas hydrate formation and evolution in geological systems. A better insight into the kinetics of methane formation from microbial biogenesis and the processes of multiphase flow at the pore scale will advance our knowledge of how these systems form. By understanding the generation and evolution of gas hydrate through time, we will better decipher the role of gas hydrate in the carbon cycle, its potential to contribute to climate change and geohazards, and how to design optimal strategies for gas production from hydrate reservoirs.

中文翻译：

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地质系统中甲烷水合物的形成机理

天然气水合物是一种天然气（主要是甲烷）和水的冰状混合物，广泛存在于近地表深度区间内，在世界陆地边缘以及多年冻土和冰川内部和之下以及在该区域内，压力足够高且温度足够高气体水合物稳定的含量低。我们将无数的地质天然气水合物矿床分为五种特征类型。然后，我们回顾提出了描述这些矿床成因并描述每种矿床如何形成的多个定量模型。我们强调将多相流（自由气体和液态水）和多组分反应性输运与地质历史相结合的重要性，以描述地质系统中天然气水合物形成和演化的动力学过程。对微生物生源中甲烷形成的动力学和孔隙尺度上的多相流动过程的更深入的了解将提高我们对这些系统的形成方式的了解。通过了解天然气水合物随时间的生成和演化，我们将更好地理解天然气水合物在碳循环中的作用，其对气候变化和地质灾害的潜在影响，以及如何设计从天然气水合物储层中开采天然气的最佳策略。