An EKU earth sciences professor has been invited to participate in an international research project to investigate the presence of methane gas hydrates within sediments of the ocean floor.

For seven weeks this summer, Dr. Walter Borowski will serve as a geological chemist aboard the JOIDES Resolution, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon shore. He will be joined on the 471- by 70-foot drill ship by about 30 other research scientists from many different countries. The ship's derrick rises 200 feet above the water line, and the ship's drilling system can operate in water as deep as approximately 27,000 feet.

This will be the third time Borowski, in his first year at EKU, has participated in an Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) project. The ODP is an international partnership of scientists and research institutions organized to explore the evolution and structure of the Earth, providing researchers around the world access to a vast repository of geological and environmental information recorded far below the ocean surface in seafloor sediments and rocks.

"One purpose of the expedition is to measure how much gas hydrate is present at this locale, so we can then extrapolate how much gas hydrate is likely present in oceans worldwide," Borowski said. "Gas hydrate is important because it contains methane, a greenhouse gas."

The amount of methane released from oceans potentially impacts world climate patterns, he explained. "Methane can warm the atmosphere by a factor 10 to 20 times greater than carbon dioxide on a per molecule basis.

"Our efforts represent some of the best research going on," he added. "A great deal of what we know about the world's past climate is through the ODP and its preceding drilling program.

"When there's a decrease in sea level," Borowski explained, "methane can be injected into the atmosphere and act as a greenhouse gas. With sea levels at their highest in about ten thousand years," large methane releases are "probably not happening today."

Borowski, who spent 10 years as a geologist with oil companies, said his undergraduate students benefit from class discussions stemming from his research. In addition, graduate students will have the opportunity to work on some of the samples generated from the project.