Here in Oregon we are the somewhat unwitting hosts of a great deal of methane hydrate research by Oregon State University, some Texas university people (and backing by the good old Houston - based gas industry), of deposits on and near the ocean floor on the Gorda Ridge just off our coast, which is
a consequence of the subduction zone geomorphology of the area.
The study site, Stardust Bay, faces a creeping part
of the eastern Aleutian
Subduction Zone, which is sandwiched between the rupture areas
of historical earthquakes in 1946 and 1957 that generated tsunamis with devastating
consequences to coastal communities around the Pacific Ocean.