System and methods for heating boreholes include laser generators to trigger a chemical reaction to break down heavy hydrocarbons in boreholes. The systems and methods use arrays of laser generators or other heating sources at the borehole surface or within the borehole to heat the heavy hydrocarbons. The systems and methods may include hydrocarbon sensors within the borehole to detect gas seepage resulting from heating of the heavy hydrocarbons.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for detecting seepage of hydrocarbons in subterranean zones. In one aspect, a method includes detecting hydrocarbon seepage at multiple different sampling depths from a surface in a surveyed geographic region, comparing each of the hydrocarbon seepage at the multiple different sampling depths, wherein hydrocarbon seepage at a reference depth is known, and determining hydrocarbon seepage through the surveyed geographic region based on a result of the comparison.

Devices, systems, and methods for sampling of gases to determine information regarding leaks are disclosed. Balanced sampling can be achieved by application of an inlet having a gas permeable membrane covering the opening. Extending the opening for a length can provide additional coverage for gas sampling. Connection of gas sampling instruments with analysis systems can determine leak information for use in remedying leaks, for example, from industrial equipment such as pipelines.

Disclosed are methods for locating deposits of mineral resources below the Earth's crust. A period of resonance of 14-day gravitational tides is predicted based on known information about a location. During the period of resonance, element vapor emissions and/or other data are recorded using gas analyzers and/or other devices, which are spread in an array over the location. The vapors and/or other data are recorded for a period of about 3-4 days. The recorded data is analyzed to determine when and where any anomalies exist. By comparing anomalies to control data, the changes can be further extrapolated to obtain more accurate data. After anomalies are detected and analyzed, the locations of deposits comprising mineral resources can be determined and maps of the locations correlating to the surface are generated.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for detecting seepage of hydrocarbons in subterranean zones. In one aspect, a method includes detecting hydrocarbon seepage at multiple different sampling depths from a surface in a surveyed geographic region, comparing each of the hydrocarbon seepage at the multiple different sampling depths, wherein hydrocarbon seepage at a reference depth is known, and determining hydrocarbon seepage through the surveyed geographic region based on a result of the comparison.

Embodiments of the disclosure are drawn to apparatus and methods for determining gas flux measurements. A gas plume may be emitted from a source and may be blown by wind in an environment. A measurement system, such as a light detection and ranging (lidar) system may collect a plurality of gas concentration measurements associated with the gas plume at a plurality of locations in the environment. A gas flux may be determined based on one or more of the gas concentration measurements along with a wind speed at a location associated with the gas plume. In some embodiments, a height of the gas plume may be determined, and the wind speed at the height of the gas plume may be determined and used to determine the gas flux.

Methods and systems for locating a chemical source include cross-correlating chemical concentration data from pairs of positions using a processor to determine an average velocity vector for a group of positions that averages away turbulence contributions. A convergence region is determined based on multiple average velocity vectors to determine a chemical source location.

Devices, systems, and methods for sampling of gases to determine information regarding leaks are disclosed. Balanced sampling can be achieved by application of an inlet having a gas permeable membrane covering the opening. Extending the opening for a length can provide additional coverage for gas sampling. Connection of gas sampling instruments with analysis systems can determine leak information for use in remedying leaks, for example, from industrial equipment such as pipelines.

The invention relates to a method for quantifying porous media and to the analytical particles specially designed therefor and to the use thereof, for example in order to determine the water permeability of rocks as a prerequisite for the development of criteria for ground water movement or the material characterization of porous materials or rock layers or for monitoring chemical, biological and/or biotechnological reactors, water tanks, water reservoirs and water line systems or in medical in-vivo methods.

The present invention provides a five-component marine natural gas hydrate intelligent sensing node, comprising a titanium alloy compartment, an information acquisition unit, an integrated control chip, and a power module; the integrated control chip comprises an intelligent computing unit and a transmission unit; the intelligent computing unit is configured for acquiring quality monitoring indicators of marine natural gas hydrates by feature extraction and transmitting reduced represented features to a monitoring device on the sea surface via the transmission unit. The present invention has overcome problems of impossible timely quality monitoring due to blind acquisition process, promised a controllable undersea node working status, and acquired data are complete without any loss, which doesn't only facilitate nonconventional energy resources such as marine hydrates prospection, and is also of great application prospect and value in oil and gas resources exploration, geological hazards precautions and evaluation.