Hydrates are a frozen mixture of water and gas, primarily methane. They form under the frigid temperatures and high pressures found in ocean sediments and under the permafrost on land.
In the ocean, hydrates exist in a "zone of stability" under the seafloor in locations where water depths exceed 500m.
However new research by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) found anomalous occurrences of high concentrations of gas hydrate at relatively shallow depths, 60-100m below the seafloor.
Vast reserves of the ices are thought to exist. One calculation suggests some 10,000 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in the form of gas hydrate around the world. That is twice the volume stored in all known reserves of fossil fuels - oil, coal and natural gas.
The amount of carbon that could be available to climate change and to altering the atmosphere and its chemistry - this could be a very significant contribution to CC.
BP will begin an exploratory programme to drill hydrates under the Alaskan permafrost in the New Year.
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