ALBERT

Description: This paper presents a comprehensive, multidisciplinary study of cold vents associated with near-seafloor gas hydrate. Several cold vents characterized by seismic blank zones have been identified on the northern Cascadia margin near Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 889/890. The most prominent vent site (Bullseye vent) has been the subject of intense geophysical and geochemical studies, including two- and three-dimensional (2D/3D) seismic imaging, heat flow measurements, piston coring with measurements of sediment physical properties and pore-fluid geochemistry, seafloor video observation, and sampling with the unmanned submersible ROPOS. The main seismically derived constraining observations are: (1) blanking increases with seismic frequency, (2) at low frequencies, layers can be traced through the zones, (3) blank zones widen with depth, (4) blank zones are underlain by a bottom simulating reflector (BSR), and (5) no velocity anomalies were detected across the vents. Constraints from piston core and thermal probe analyses are: (1) massive hydrate was recovered just below the seafloor at Bullseye vent, and (2) chemical alteration of sediments was observed by reduced magnetic susceptibility, increased thermal conductivity, and an elevated sulfate/methane interface. Additional constraints are: (1) no thermal anomaly was observed, (2) widespread carbonates and active chemosynthetic communities were found, and (3) elevated levels of methane were detected in the water column above Bullseye vent. We present a model for the seismic blanking at Bullseye vent that honors the constraints from all observations. The cold vents represent channels or networks of filamentous fractures containing hydrate and/or free gas. Free gas can be present within the hydrate stability field only in fractures, which may be coated with hydrate that prevents the inflow of water. The overall concentration of hydrate or gas within the vent must be small, because there was no observable velocity anomaly.

Description: This chapter reviews the extensive geophysical studies and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) results that provide constraints on the occurrence, distribution, and concentration of deep-sea gas hydrate beneath the northern Cascadia margin offshore Vancouver Island. Most of this information comes from a wide range of seismic surveys and includes the mapping of the bottom-simulating reflector (BSR), as well as estimating gas-hydrate and free-gas concentrations. Recent additional constraints on the distribution and concentration of gas hydrate come from sea-floor-towed, controlled-source electromagnetic surveying and sea-floor compliance studies. These surveys and studies have been primarily deployed around a cold vent field, where seismic data show several broad blank zones, interpreted as fault-related conduits for focused fluid-gas migration, and where gas hydrate has been recovered in piston cores at the sea floor. Results from the ODP Leg 146 and the recently completed Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 311 further constrain concentration estimates for gas hydrate and free gas in the sediments along the margin and also give insight into the complex formation mechanisms and controlling factors for gas hydrate occurrence in an accretionary complex. This summary was first presented in September 2004 at the AAPG Hedberg Research Conference on gas hydrates. Subsequently, 1 yr later, the drilling of IODP Expedition 311 resulted in a significant amount of new information and insight into the occurrence and formation processes of gas hydrate at the northern Cascadia margin. This chapter provides only a short summary of the results from that IODP Expedition. Reviews of the results from that drill coring and the downhole measurements are in progress.

Description: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 311 is based on extensive site survey data and historic research at the northern Cascadia margin since 1985. This research includes various regional geophysical surveys using a broad spectrum of seismic techniques, coring and logging by the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 146, heat flow measurements, shallow piston coring, and bottom video observations across a cold-vent field, as well as novel controlled-source electromagnetic and seafloor compliance surveying techniques. The wealth of data available allowed construction of structural cross-sections of the margin, development of models for the formation of gas hydrate in an accretionary prism, and estimation of gas hydrate and free gas concentrations. Expedition 311 established for the first time a transect of drill sites across the northern Cascadia margin to study the evolution of gas hydrate formation over the entire gas hydrate stability field of the accretionary complex. This paper reviews the tectonic framework at the northern Cascadia margin and summarizes the scientific studies that led to the drilling objectives of Expedition 311 Cascadia gas hydrate.