In recent years, USGS Gas Hydrates Project scientists have studied the Cape Fear and Currituck Slides on the U.S. USGS Gas Hydrates Project scientists support the submarine geohazards research of the USGS Natural Hazards Mission Area through field-based surveys that refine understanding of the hydrates-slope failure association and through geotechnical studies that evaluate the response of sediments to dissociation or dissolution of gas hydrate. ![]() This schematic diagram, modified from Ruppel, Boswell, and Jones (2008), shows a compilation of other researchers’ ideas about potential manmade hazards related to gas hydrates.įeatures associated with natural failure of the seafloor have also been linked to gas hydrates in some cases. USGS scientists have long studied submarine landslides on marine continental margins and were among the first to note a spatial link between slope failures and hydrate-bearing and/or gas-charged sediments in the 1990s. Please visit the ‘Government beta site’ by clicking on the link under Related Links.Researchers have postulated that seafloor collapse or sediment failure could occur when certain drilling and extraction activities are conducted in deepwater marine environments where gas hydrates exist in the shallow sediments. We need your help! We are trying out designs for a new single website for all of government and we’d love your feedback. She is one awesome piece of kit - and I am very proud of the fellowship that has formed in a very fine crew. Next in line for Astute is a base maintenance period at Faslane, before returning to sea later in the year for more trials. Not only that, Naval Command in Britain can reprogramme the missiles in mid-flight and aim for another target, even if the submarine is thousands of miles away. Her sonar can track ships 3,000 miles (4,830km) away and her missiles have a target range of 1,200 miles (1,930km) - with accuracy measured in metres. “America was just great.Īstute will never need refuelling. I volunteered for this because it was the bigger challenge and submarines are a lot more interesting than skimmers,” he said. Astute is his first submarine and the deployment marked his first trip to America: The youngest man on the 7,800-tonne boat, Stoker Jonathon Ball, aged 19, from Ballyclare in Northern Ireland, only signed up in January of last year. To serve on a boat like this in the twilight of my career has actually been the highlight of my career. The whole world was watching us and we did it. To have achieved what we achieved is a very significant milestone. The oldest man on board, coxswain Chief Petty Officer John Adam, aged 50, from Old Kilpatrick, said: This is the future - Astute is on her way - and she is still a trials boat. The Americans were utterly taken aback, blown away with what they were seeing.Ĭommader Breckenridge, whose first submarine was diesel-powered HMS Olympus, basically a redesign of Second World War technology, added: Our sonar is fantastic and I have never before experienced holding a submarine at the range we were holding USS New Mexico. We fired off four Tomahawks, aimed at a corner of Eglin Air Force Base to test for accuracy, and we fired six Spearfish torpedoes, including the first salvo firing by a British submarine for 15 years. She is just better than any other submarine I have ever been on.Īstute is still on trial and she is first of class which always brings its own problems, but we are beginning to look beyond those problems and see the promise. Of the deployment, which saw them visit the giant US Naval Base in Kings Bay, Georgia, Commander Breckenridge said: We are looking forward now to a bright future - this is a submarine of tremendous capability. Her Commanding Officer, Glasgow-born Commander Iain Breckenridge, aged 45, was met in the Clyde yesterday by his wife Steph, and she sailed with him the last few miles to the Coulport side of HM Naval Base Clyde. ![]() She ‘battled’ against USS New Mexico, America’s newest and best Virginia Class hunter-attack submarine, deep dived, fired her Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, and over the course of the deployment sailed 16,400 miles (26,400km). ![]() She spent 77 days at sea, 65 alongside, and was inspected by 18-stars-worth of American and British naval authority - including the First Sea Lord and America’s naval equivalent, the Chief of Naval Operations. She has spent the last four-and-a-half months off the eastern seaboard of North America undergoing extensive trials, including firing her main weaponry for the first time. The hunter-killer nuclear submarine HMS Astute, the first of the Navy’s next-generation submarines, is the most advanced submarine Britain has ever sent to sea.
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