A German-Taiwanese research project will study gas hydrates on the seabed off southern Taiwan with a view to developing a potentially rich energy resource, the German Institute Taipei said yesterday.
The research expedition, which starts on Sunday and is scheduled to last for five weeks, will explore and examine the ice-like mineral that is usually found on the ocean floor at depths of between 500m and 2,000m, the institute said.
Hydrates contain gases, such as hydrocarbons, that attach themselves inside the symmetrical cages of water molecules to form hydrate crystals.
“Interest in the extraction of gas hydrates is high all around the world. However, many fundamental questions about gas hydrate deposits remain,” said Christian Berndt, the research team’s chief geoscientist.
The project also aims to help definine the role of plate tectonics in the formation of gas hydrates, which makes the selected site in the South China Sea ideal since it is where the Eurasian tectonic plate and the Philippine Sea plate converge, the institute said.
Berndt said the team will use the latest geophysical techniques, which can create 3D images of the subsurface, to get estimates of how much gas hydrate is on the seabed in the area.
The technology can generate data that is “10 times better than before,” he said.
It could also help to predict the impact of hydrate mining on the stability of the ocean floor, he added.
The joint project will begin on the German research ship Sonne and will be followed by a second excursion in June on a brand new Taiwanese research vessel, the institute said.
Germany’s Federal State Ministry of Research will provide funding of 1.2 million euros (NT$46 million) for the project, while Taiwan will contribute 300,000 euros, the institute said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not