“…Our model illuminates how the enriched hydrate above and the free gas column below the BHSZ forms (Figure 1) as is commonly observed along continental margins (e.g., Blake Ridge (Paull et al, 1996), Hydrate Ridge (Trèhu et al, 2003), and South China Sea (Wu et al, 2011) Our model improves significantly compared with previous models of methane hydrate formation in geological system. First, many previous hydrate formation models did not include methane transport by free gas flow as we do (although free gas flow is included in many gas production models from hydrate reservoir as summarized in White et al [2020]). They either simulated only the two-phase (hydrate, liquid) region above the BHSZ and considered only the in situ methane (e.g., Malinverno, 2010), or assumed no gas bubble formation (e.g., Daigle & Dugan, 2010;Xu & Ruppel, 1999), or gas bubble cannot move relative to sediment grains (e.g., Davie & Buffett, 2001).…”