Worldwide, particularly in deeply buried permafrost and in high -
latitude ocean sediments where pressures are high and temperatures are below freezing, icy deposits called hydrates hold immense amounts of methane (SN: 6/25/05, p. 410).
Interest in high -
latitude methane and carbon cycles is motivated by the existence of very large stores of carbon (C), in potentially labile reservoirs of soil organic carbon in permafrost (frozen) soils and in methane - containing ices called methane hydrate or clathrate, especially offshore in
ocean marginal
sediments.