You might think it's a problem for an editor to have a superabundance of material, but Dean Clark, editor of TLE, has often said it's a great problem to have. Gas hydrates, the topic for this month's special section, presents us with this problem, and for the sake of the readership we're glad to have it. Gas hydrates are drawing significant interest in the geophysical community and the general public (as indicated by the news items to the right) owing to their potential as viable economic sources of natural gas and to the science and technology associated with defining and exploiting them. The number and variety of papers in this special section clearly demonstrate that interest, necessarily concentrating on the technical aspects of gas hydrates, but also setting commercial context for gas hydrates within the larger arena of exploration for and production of oil and natural gas resources.