Gas clathrate hydrates (aka gas hydrates, clathrates, hydrates) are icy compounds that are much in the news of late. They are pervasive in marine sediments and in permafrost, and represent a huge hydrocarbon resource as well as a potential global warming and geological hazard. They are also implicated in the early solar system, and may be present in large amounts in some of the icy moons of the outer solar system. We have been studying the properties of clathrates for many years with both terrestrial and planetological applications in mind.

One of the many remarkable things about clathrates is their extremely high strength compared with ordinary water ice. The sample here has a lower half that is methane clathrate and an upper half that is pure water ice. Deformed in compression at 260 kelvins and 3.5 MPa differential stress, the ice portion deformed several orders of magnitude faster than did the clathrate portion.

Durham et al., 2003 for methane hydrate
Durham et al., 2005 for several hydrates