Professor Tim Minshull, Lead Investigator
Tim Minshull is the head of the Ocean and Earth Science School of the University of Southampton and works within the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.
He has a background of geophysics from the Universities of Durham and Cambridge and has twice been awarded Royal Society University Research Fellowships at Cambridge and Southampton.
Tim’s current research interests are in extension of the continental lithosphere, active island arc volcanism and, particularly in the context of the Arctic Research Programme, methane hydrates. His recent hydrate research has focused on the hydrate system west of Svalbard, where the hydrate stability field is being thermally eroded by changes in ocean temperature. He leads a NERC-funded project (2011-2014) that has funded two cruises: one using high-resolution seismic techniques to image gas escape pathways and the other using controlled source electromagnetic techniques to quantify the amounts of hydrate and gas present. Tim also has been awarded one of the small projects funded by DECC (through NERC) to model the evolution of the hydrate stability field into the future in the Svalbard region.
Contact information
Email: tmin@noc.soton.ac.uk
Methane Hydrates
Investigating and modelling how ocean warming can affect the stability of methane hydrates in Arctic Ocean sediments, causing hydrates to thaw and the greenhouse gas methane to be released into the surrounding seawater and the atmosphere.
More information on this project