Andrew R. Gorman

Migration of methane gas through the hydrate stability zone in a low-flux hydrate province

New high-resolution seismic data show clear evidence for upward injection of methane gas well into the hydrate stability zone at the stable, low-methane-flux Blake Ridge crest. This movement of gaseous methane, through a thermo-dynamic regime where it should be trapped as hydrate, suggests that dynamic migrations of gas play an important role in the interaction of subseafloor methane with the ocean. In the study area, none of the seismic amplitude anomalies that provide evidence for gas migration reaches the seafloor; instead they terminate at the base of a highly reflective, unfaulted capping layer. Seismic inversions of anomalous regions show (1) increased velocities beneath the hydrate stability zone, suggesting less gas, and (2) increased velocities within the hydrate stability zone associated with observed low-amplitude chimneys and bright spots, indicating increased hydrate concentrations. These observations and analyses indicate that methane migrates upward as free gas hundreds of meters into the hydrate stability zone before forming hydrate. The observations strongly imply that given appropriate permeable pathways, free gas can escape into the ocean. Even in a low-flux environment, the hydrate stability zone is not an impermeable barrier to free-gas migration.

Direct seismic detection of methane hydrate on the Blake Ridge

Seismic detection of methane hydrate often relies on indirect or equivocal methods. New multichannel seismic reflection data from the Blake Ridge, located approximately 450 km east of Savannah, Georgia, show three direct seismic indicators of methane hydrate: (1) a paleo bottom‐simulating reflector (BSR) formed when methane gas froze into methane hydrate on the eroding eastern flank of the Blake Ridge, (2) a lens of reduced amplitudes and high P‐wave velocities found between the paleo‐BSR and BSR, and (3) bright spots within the hydrate stability zone that represent discrete layers of concentrated hydrate formed by upward migration of gas. Velocities within the lens (∼1910 m/s) are significantly higher than velocities in immediately adjacent strata (1820 and 1849 m/s). Conservative estimates show that the hydrate lens contains at least 13% bulk methane hydrate within a 2‐km3 volume, yielding 3.2 × 1010kg [1.5 TCF (4.2 × 1010 m3] of methane. Low seismic amplitudes coupled with high interval velocities with...

Escape of methane gas through sediment waves in a large methane hydrate province

Despite paleoceanographic evidence that large quantities of methane have escaped from marine gas hydrates into the oceans, the sites and mechanisms of methane release remain largely speculative. New seismic data from the Blake Ridge, a hydrate-bearing drift deposit in the western Atlantic, show clear evidence for methane release and suggest a new mechanism by which methane gas can escape, without thermal or mechanical disruption of the hydrate-bearing layer. Rapid, post–2.5 Ma formation of large sediment waves and associated seafloor erosion created permeable pathways connecting free gas to the seafloor, allowing methane gas expulsion. The amount of missing methane, 0.6 Gt, is equivalent to ∼12% of total present-day atmospheric methane. Our results imply that significant amounts of methane gas can bypass the hydrate stability zone and escape into the ocean. Mechanisms of tapping methane directly from the free-gas zone, such as widespread seafloor erosion, should be considered when seeking the causes of large negative carbon isotope excursions in the geological record.

Seismic detection of marine methane hydrate

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 …

Gas migration into gas hydrate‐bearing sediments on the southern Hikurangi margin of New Zealand

We present multichannel seismic data from New Zealands Hikurangi subduction margin that show widespread evidence for gas migration into the field of gas hydrate stability. Gas migration along stratigraphic layers into the hydrate system manifests itself as highly reflective segments of dipping strata that originate at the base of hydrate stability and extend some distance toward the seafloor. The highly reflective segments exhibit the same polarity as the seafloor reflection, indicating that localized gas hydrate precipitation from gas-charged fluids within relatively permeable layers has occurred. High-density velocity analysis shows that these layer-constrained gas hydrate accumulations are underlain by thick (up to ~500 m) free gas zones, which provide the source for focused gas migration into the hydrate layer. In addition to gas being channeled along layers, we also interpret gas migration through a fault zone into the field of hydrate stability; in this case, a low-velocity layer within the hydrate stability zone extends laterally away from the fault, which might indicate that gas-charged fluids have also migrated away from the fault along strata. At this site, where both dipping strata and faulting seem to influence fluid migration, we observe anomalously high velocities at the base of hydrate stability that we interpret as concentrated gas hydrates. Our results give insight into how shallow fluid flow responds to permeability contrasts between strata, fault zones, and perhaps also the gas hydrate system itself. Ultimately, these relationships can lead to gas migration across the base of hydrate stability and the precipitation of concentrated hydrate deposits.

Investigation of the role of gas hydrates in continental slope stability west of Fiordland, New Zealand

Abstract Sediment weakening due to increased local pore fluid pressure is interpreted to be the cause of a submarine landslide that has been seismically imaged off the southwest coast of New Zealand. Data show a distinct and continuous bottom‐simulating reflection (BSR)—a seismic phenomena indicative of the presence of marine gas hydrate—below the continental shelf from water depths of c. 2400 m to c. 750 m, where it intersects the seafloor. Excess pore fluid pressure (EPP) generated in a free gas zone below the base of gas hydrate stability is interpreted as being a major factor in the slopes destabilisation. Representative sediment strength characteristics have been applied to limit‐equilibrium methods of slope stability analysis with respect to the Mohr‐Coulomb failure criterion to develop an understanding of the features sensitivity to EPP. EPP has been modelled with representative material properties (internal angle of friction, bulk soil unit weight and cohesion) to show the considerable effect it has on stability. The best estimate of average EPP being solely responsible for failure is 1700 kPa, assuming a perfectly elastic body above a pre‐defined failure surface in a static environment.

Wave‐field Tau‐p analysis for 2‐D velocity models: Application to western North American lithosphere

The international Deep Probe refraction experiment is a continental-scale study of the crust and upper mantle in western North America to determine well-constrained mantle velocity-depth structures for the stable Archean Hearne and Wyoming provinces and the tectonically modified Proterozoic lithosphere of the southern Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau. An initial 2-D velocity interpretation for Deep Probe has been accomplished by the application of the downward-continued wave-field τ-p transform method. This approach involves two linear transforms for each shot gather from the experiment: a τ-p transform (or slant stack) of the input data followed by a downward continuation to z-p space using an appropriate velocity function. The determination of this velocity function is an iterative process which converges when the downward-continued wave field images a velocity function which is the same as that used to create it. The resulting 1-D velocity function, υ(z), from each gather is converted to a 2-D function, υ(x, z) using ray theory. Eleven profiles along the Deep Probe corridor have been analysed. The resulting functions have been combined, gridded and contoured to produce a velocity structure section for the project, which provides an initial model for the application of more advanced interpretation procedures. As a result, the lithospheric structures of three major tectonic provinces have been identified in an efficient and effective manner that did not require ‘picking’ of travel times.

EROSION OF SEAFLOOR RIDGES AT THE TOP OF THE GAS HYDRATE STABILITY ZONE, HIKURANGI MARGIN, NEW ZEALAND – NEW INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH CRUISES BETWEEN 2005 AND 2007.

It was proposed that erosion of subsea ridges on the Hikurangi margin may be linked to a fluctuating level of the top of gas hydrate stability in the ocean. Since publication of this hypothesis, three field campaigns were conducted in the study area. Here we summarize relevant results from these cruises. We found that water temperature fluctuations occur at lower frequencies and higher amplitudes than previously thought, making it more likely that temperature changes reach sub-seafloor gas hydrates. Dredge samples encountered numerous consolidated mudstones. We speculate that gas hydrate “freeze-thaw” cycles may lead to dilation of fractures in mudstones due to capillary forces, weakening the seafloor. Ubiquitous gas pockets beneath the ridge may lead to overpressure that may also contribute to seafloor fracturing.

New insights into the tectonic inversion of North Canterbury and the regional structural context of the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, New Zealand

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence highlighted the existence of previously unknown active faults beneath the North Canterbury plains and Pegasus Bay, South Island, New Zealand. We provide new insights into the geometry and kinematics of ongoing deformation by analyzing marine seismic data to produce new maps of regional faults and cross-sectional reconstructions of deformation history. Active faulting and folding extends up to 30 km offshore, and involves reactivation of sets of Late Cretaceous-Paleogene normal faults under NW-SE tectonic compression. The active faults consist predominantly of NE-SW striking, SE-dipping reverse faults, and less commonly E-W to NW-SE faults suitably oriented for strike-slip reactivation. Additionally, newly developing reverse faults obliquely segment and overprint the inherited basement fabric and impose geometric and kinematic complexities revealed by mapping and reverse displacement profiles of markers. The Quaternary reverse slip rates decrease from 0.1–0.3 mm/yr beneath northern Pegasus Bay to <0.05 mm/yr approaching Banks Peninsula. Fault growth modeling involving trishear fault-propagation folding mechanisms successfully restores an evolutionary sequence of progressive fault inversion, revealing a history of reactivated individual faults. Tectonic inversion and overprinting processes beneath Pegasus Bay are immature and <1.2 ± 0.4 Ma old, with no evidence of systematic spatial migration of deformation. Our marine data analyses give insights into the structural context of the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence, while the combined onshore to offshore data provide an excellent illustration of fault growth associated with immature inversion tectonics, in which selective fault reactivation results from compressive stress imposed across a complex network of inherited faults.

Relict proglacial deltas in Bradshaw and George sounds, Fiordland, New Zealand

New Zealand fjords (Fig. 1e) contain submerged, relict, proglacial lacustrine and marine deltas that formed after glaciers retreated from the west coast by 17 ka (Pickrill et al. 1992). Many of these deltas, for example those in Bradshaw and George sounds, are exceptionally well preserved because postglacial sedimentation rates have been low. Fig. 1. Relict proglacial deltas in Bradshaw and George sounds, Fiordland, New Zealand. ( a ) Swath-bathymetric image of the head of George Sound superimposed on a hill-shaded DEM. Acquisition system Kongsberg EM300. Frequency 30 kHz. Grid-cell size 5 m. EB, Elder Basin; WB, Whitewater Basin; SWB, South-West Basin; AD, Anchorage Delta; WD, Whitewater Delta; SWAD, South-West Arm Delta; ALD, Alice Delta; AF, Alice Falls. ( b ) Head of Bradshaw Sound. BB, Bradshaw Basin; GAD, Gaer Arm Delta; PD, Precipice Delta. ( c ) Long-axis profile from EB to Lake Alice (LA), across the relict proglacial ALD and WB. VE×11. ( d ) Long-axis profile across the modern and relict proglacial components of GAD. VE ×10. ( e ) Location of study area (red box; map from GEBCO_08). ( f ) Enlargement showing bathymetric details of the AD foreset slope off Anchorage Cove. ( g ) Head …