ALBERT

Description: Bottom-simulating reflections (BSRs) are probably the most commonly used indicators for gas hydrates in marine sediments. It is now widely accepted that BSRs are primarily caused by free gas beneath gas-hydrate-bearing sediments. However, our insight into BSR formation to date is mostly limited to theoretical studies. Two endmember processes have been suggested to supply free gas for BSR formation: (i) dissociation of gas hydrates and (ii) migration of methane from below. During a recent campaign of the German Research Vessel Sonne off the shore of Peru, we detected BSRs at locations undergoing both tectonic subsidence and non-sedimentation or seafloor erosion. Tectonic subsidence (and additionally perhaps seafloor erosion) causes the base of gas hydrate stability to migrate downward with respect to gas-hydrate-bearing sediments. This process rules out dissociation of gas hydrates as a source of free gas for BSRs at these locations. Instead, free gas at BSRs is predicted to be absorbed into the gas hydrate stability zone. BSRs appear to be confined to locations where the subsurface structure suggests focusing of fluid flow. We investigated the seafloor at one of these locations with a TV sled and observed fields of rounded boulders and slab-like rocks, which we interpreted as authigenic carbonates. Authigenic carbonates are precipitations typically found at cold vents with methane expulsion. We retrieved a small carbonate-cemented sediment sample from the seafloor above a BSR about 20 km away. This supported our interpretation that the observed slabs and boulders were carbonates. All these observations suggest that BSRs in Lima Basin are maintained predominantly by gas that is supplied from below, demonstrating that this endmember process for BSR formation exists in nature. Results from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 112 showed that methane for gas hydrate formation on the Peru lower slope and the methane in hydrocarbon gases on the upper slope is mostly of biogenic origin. The δ13C composition of the recovered carbonate cement was consistent with biologic methane production below the seafloor (although possibly above the BSR). We speculate that the gas for BSR formation in Lima Basin also is mainly biogenic methane. This would suggest the biologic productivity beneath the gas hydrate zone in Lima Basin to be relatively high in order to supply enough methane to maintain BSRs.

Description: As offshore petroleum exploration and development move into deeper water, industry must contend increasingly with gas hydrate, a solid compound that binds water and a low-molecular-weight gas (usually methane). Gas hydrate has been long studied in industry from an engineering viewpoint, due to its tendency to clog gas pipelines. However, hydrate also occurs naturally wherever there are high pressures, low temperatures, and sufficient concentrations of gas and water. These conditions prevail in two natural environments, both of which are sites of active exploration: permafrost regions and marine sediments on continental slopes. In this article we discuss seismic detection of gas hydrate in marine sediments. Gas hydrate in deepwater sediments poses both new opportunities and new hazards. An enormous quantity of natural gas, likely far exceeding the global inventory of conventional fossil fuels, is locked up worldwide in hydrates. Ex-traction of this unconventional resource presents unique exploration, engineering, and economic challenges, and several countries, including the United States, Japan, Canada, India, and Korea, have initiated joint industry-academic-governmental programs to begin studying those challenges. Hydrates also constitute a potential drilling hazard. Because hydrates are only stable in a restricted range of pressure and temperature, any activity that sufficiently raises temperature or lowers pressure could destabilize them, releasing potentially large volumes of gas and decreasing the shear strength of the host sediments. Assessment of the opportunities and hazards associated with hydrates requires reliable methods of detecting hydrate and accurate maps of their distribution and concentration. Hydrate may occur only within the upper few hundred meters of deepwater sediment, at any depth between the seafloor and the base of the stability zone, which is controlled by local pressure and temperature. Hydrate is occasionally exposed at the seafloor, where it can be detected either visually or acoustically by strong seismic reflection amplitudes or high backscatter …