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1.
This study investigates the distribution and evolution of seafloor seepage in the vicinity of the salt front, i.e., the seaward boundary of salt-induced deformation in the Lower Congo Basin (LCB). Seafloor topography, backscatter data and TV-sled observations indicate active fluid seepage from the seafloor directly at the salt front, whereas suspected seepage sites appear to be inactive at a distance of >10 km landward of the deformation front. High resolution multichannel seismic data give detailed information on the structural development of the area and its influence on the activity of individual seeps during the geologic evolution of the salt front region. The unimpeded migration of gas from fan deposits along sedimentary strata towards the base of the gas hydrate stability zone within topographic ridges associated with relatively young salt-tectonic deformation facilitates seafloor seepage at the salt front. Bright and flat spots within sedimentary successions suggest geological trapping of gas on the flanks of mature salt structures in the eastern part of the study area. Onlap structures associated with fan deposits which were formed after the onset of salt-tectonic deformation represent potential traps for gas, which may hinder gas migration towards seafloor seeps. Faults related to the thrusting of salt bodies seawards also disrupt along-strata gas migration pathways. Additionally, the development of an effective gas hydrate seal after the cessation of active salt-induced uplift and the near-surface location of salt bodies may hamper or prohibit seafloor seepage in areas of advanced salt-tectonic deformation. This process of seaward shifting active seafloor seepage may propagate as seaward migrating deformation affects Congo Fan deposits on the abyssal plain. These observations of the influence of the geologic evolution of the salt front area on seafloor seepage allows for a characterization of the large variety of hydrocarbon seepage activity throughout this compressional tectonic setting. 相似文献
2.
Release of hydrocarbons from sediments is important in increasing habitat heterogeneity on deep ocean margins. Heterogeneity arises from variation in abiotic and biotic conditions, including changes in substratum, geochemistry, fluid flow, biological communities and ecological interactions. The seepage of heavy hydrocarbons to the seafloor is less well studied than most other cold seep systems and may lead to the formation of asphalt mounds. These have been described from several regions, particularly the Gulf of Mexico. Here, we describe the structure, potential formation and biology of a large asphalt mound province in Block 31SE Angola. A total of 2254 distinct mound features was identified by side-scan sonar, covering a total area of 3.7 km2 of seafloor. The asphalt mounds took a number of forms from small (<0.5 m diameter; 13% observations) mounds to large extensive (<50 m diameter) structures. Some of the observed mounds were associated with authigenic carbonate and active seepage (living chemosynthetic fauna present in addition to the asphalt). The asphalt mounds are seabed accumulations of heavy hydrocarbons formed from subsurface migration and fractionation of reservoir hydrocarbons primarily through a network of faults. In Angola these processes are controlled by subsurface movement of salt structures. The asphalt mounds were typically densely covered with epifauna (74.5% of mounds imaged had visible epifauna) although individual mounds varied considerably in epifaunal coverage. Of the 49 non-chemosynthetic megafaunal taxa observed, 19 taxa were only found on hard substrata (including asphalt mounds), 2 fish species inhabited the asphalt mounds preferentially and 27 taxa were apparently normal soft-sediment fauna. Antipatharians (3.6±2.3% s.e.) and poriferans (2.6±1.9% s.e.) accounted for the highest mean percentage of the observed cover, with actinarians (0.9±0.4% s.e.) and alcyonaceans (0.4±0.2% s.e.) covering smaller proportions of the area. Asphalt mounds represent a common and important habitat on several margin systems globally and should be recognised in future environmental assessment and management of these areas. 相似文献
3.
Unit-pockmarks were recognized as more-or-less insignificant features on the seafloor in the early 1980s. However, this investigation, at four different regions in Norwegian waters, suggests they are more significant for seep detection than previously believed. They occur as circular depressions in the seafloor (diameter < 5 m) either as singular features, as strings, or as clusters. One of our main conclusions is that they are widespread and represent the most recent and most active local seep locations. This is based on their areal density distribution, the finding of relatively high hydrocarbon concentrations inside sampled unit-pockmarks and at locations where they are abundant, and on theoretical considerations. When unit-pockmarks occur together with ‘normal-sized’ pockmarks, they often form to the side of the normal-pockmark centre. Our study also suggests that (1) the driving force behind seafloor hydraulic activity, i.e., the formation of unit-pockmarks, normal-pockmarks, and many other fluid flow features, is pockets of buried free gas, and (2) whereas unit-pockmarks likely manifest cyclic pore-water seepage, their larger related, normal-pockmarks, likely manifest periodic or intermittent gas bursts (eruptions), with extended intervening periods of slow, diffusive, and cyclic pore-water seepage. Our findings suggest that seep detection is most efficiently performed by mapping the seafloor with high-resolution bathymetry (at least 1 m × 1 m gridding), and acquiring geochemical samples where the density of unit-pockmarks is locally highest. 相似文献
5.
Distribution and expression of gas seeps in a gas hydrate province of the northeastern Sakhalin continental slope, Sea of Okhotsk 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
Young Keun Jin Young-Gyun Kim Boris Baranov Hitoshi Shoji Anatoly Obzhirov 《Marine and Petroleum Geology》2011,28(10):1844-1855
Multidisciplinary surveys were conducted to investigate gas seepage and gas hydrate accumulation on the northeastern Sakhalin continental slope (NESS), Sea of Okhotsk, during joint Korean–Russian–Japanese expeditions conducted from 2003 to 2007 (CHAOS and SSGH projects). One hundred sixty-one gas seeps were detected in a 2000 km2 area of the NESS (between 53°45′N and 54°45′N). Active gas seeps in a gas hydrate province on the NESS were evident from features in the water column, on the seafloor, and in the subsurface: well-defined hydroacoustic anomalies (gas flares), side-scan sonar structures with high backscatter intensity (seepage structures), bathymetric structures (pockmarks and mounds), gas- and gas-hydrate-related seismic features (bottom-simulating reflectors, gas chimneys, high-amplitude reflectors, and acoustic blanking), high methane concentrations in seawater, and gas hydrates in sediment near the seafloor. These expressions were generally spatially related; a gas flare would be associated with a seepage structure (mound), below which a gas chimney was present. The spatial distribution of gas seeps on the NESS is controlled by four types of geological structures: faults, the shelf break, seafloor canyons, and submarine slides. Gas chimneys that produced enhanced reflection on high-resolution seismic profiles are interpreted as active pathways for upward gas migration to the seafloor. The chimneys and gas flares are good indicators of active seepage. 相似文献
6.
Feng Ding Volkhard Spiess Ian R. MacDonald Markus Brüning Noemi Fekete Gerhard Bohrmann 《Marine and Petroleum Geology》2010,27(4):959-972
During German R/V Meteor M67/2 expedition to Campeche Knolls, southern Gulf of Mexico, a set of 2D high resolution seismic data was acquired to study the near-surface sediment structure and its relationship with hydrocarbon seepages in this salt province. The comprehensive survey covered 20 individual bathymetric highs or ridges and identified three principle structural types: Passive Type, Chaopopte Type, and Asymmetric Flap Type. The first type is the result of passive diapirism, whereas the latter two were initialized by a regional compressional event in the Miocene, but are later differently modified by salt tectonism. Chapopote Type structures appear as symmetrical domes, with uplifted coarse-grained Miocene sediments in their cores and rather thin syn-kinematic sediments covering the crests. Asymmetric Flap Type structures are also first folded as domes or ridges, but one flap later subsided together with salt evacuation, resulting in single uplifted monoclines. With the coarse-grained pre-kinematic sediments as reservoir units, both structural types can focus and accumulate hydrocarbons. The geometries of the structures suggest that hydrocarbons are accumulated in the center of the Chapopote Type structures and in the subsided flaps of the Asymmetric Flap Type structures. Hydrocarbon leakage from these thinly sealed reservoirs is regarded as the principle mechanism for the seepage in the study area, and accordingly the most seepage-prone positions are above these reservoirs. The seep locations suggested by analysis of sea-surface oil slick images of SAR satellite data are also examined in this study. These independently derived seep locations confirm the seepage-prone positions to be above the shallow buried reservoirs. This study suggest that the shallow sediment structures control the distribution of the hydrocarbon seeps of the north-western Campeche Knolls, although the hydrocarbons are sourced from the greater depth. 相似文献
7.
Vulnerability assessment of the impact of sea-level rise and flooding on the Moroccan coast: The case of the Mediterranean eastern zone 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
The eastern part of the Mediterranean coast of Morocco is physically and socio-economically vulnerable to accelerated sea-level rise, due to its low topography and its high ecological and touristic value. Assessment of the potential land loss by inundation has been based on empirical approaches using a minimum inundation level of 2 m and a maximum inundation level of 7 m, where scenarios for future sea-level rise range from 200 to 860 mm, with a ‘best estimate’ of 490 mm. The socio-economic impacts have been based on two possible alternative futures: (1) a ‘worst-case’ scenario, obtained by combining the ‘economic development first’ scenario with the maximum inundation level; and (2) a ‘best-case’ scenario, by combining the ‘sustainability first’ scenario with the minimum inundation level. Inundation analysis, based on Geographical Information Systems and a modelling approach to erosion, has identified both locations and the socioeconomic sectors that are most at risk to accelerated sea-level rise. 相似文献
8.
The effect of Cenozoic mass-transport deposits (MTDs) on the morphology of the Late Neogene to Quaternary seafloor is investigated using a 3D seismic volume from offshore Brazil. The studied MTD shows large remnant blocks deforming the seafloor several Ma after a principal instability event marking the base of the investigated strata. Remnant blocks formed during this latter instability event were quickly buried, with differential compaction between individual blocks and adjacent debrites triggering: a) seafloor instability on the flanks of uncompacted (remnant) blocks, b) the incision of submarine channels between seafloor highs formed by buried remnant blocks, c) local uplifted areas on the seafloor that may form potential triggers for future slope instabilities. The interpreted data show that palaeo-seafloor scarps reached more than 120 m in height, with flanking strata to remnant blocks reaching angles of 15°. Angles of this magnitude caused local collapse of seafloor strata and, in some intervals, the confinement of younger MTDs sourced from the upper slope. The statistical data presented here indicate that differential compaction over heterogeneous MTDs continued well after early burial, still deforming the seafloor c. 15 Ma after the main instability event. In addition, significant structural traps are formed by forced folds on remnant blocks that not experienced substantial compaction. Therefore, we conclude that MTDs on passive margins can control seafloor topography after early burial, at the same time contributing to the formation of significant structural traps in post-MTD successions. 相似文献
9.
John D. Bicknell Ken C. MacDonald Stephen P. Miller Peter F. Lonsdale Keir Becker 《Marine Geophysical Researches》1986,8(2):131-148
The Nereus Deep (23°N) lies in the central portion of the Red Sea, in a region which marks a transition between the nearly continuous axial rift valley of the southern Red Sea and the northern Red Sea, where a well defined axial rift is absent. The deep-tow survey and associated heat flow measurements reported here show that the Nereus Deep is a short segment of axial rift, and it is the northernmost deep where petrology, heat flow, magnetics, and morphology all indicate classic seafloor spreading. Heat flow measured in the Nereus Deep is characterized by non-linear gradients and closely-spaced variability indicative of active hydrothermal circulation associated with seafloor spreading. The two axial highs which we have mapped in Nereus differ markedly in that the southernmost appears younger or at least has had a more recent phase of volcanism. The two axial highs are offset left laterally approximately 2 km. This small offset or bend in the axial course has been labelled the Nereus shear zone, and, despite its small extent, it mimics many of the major features of small offset, slow-slipping transform faults. This shear zone may result from shear stresses associated with misalignments in succeeding volcanic episodes. The Nereus Deep appears to represent one of the earliest phases of seafloor spreading. The Red Sea seems to be opening towards the north, and the Nereus Deep is near the tip of propagation, but it is clear from this study that rift propagation in a site of initial rifting differs greatly from that observed along a well developed, fast spreading center like the East Pacific Rise. 相似文献
10.
Considerable effort has been expended in studying the Izu-Bonin Arc over the past 15 years. In particular, 43 dives of the Shinkai 2000 have been undertaken there to discover and evaluate the extent of submarine hydrothermal activity and mineraliza tion. Most effort has been focused on Myojin Knoll (23 dives), Suiyo Seamount (6 dives), and Kaikata Caldera (10 dives). The Izu-Bonin Arc is divided in two by the Sofugan Tectonic Line. Eight submarine caldera are located north of this line but only one is south of it. The physiography of the northern sector of the arc is quite different from that of the southern sector. Volcanic rocks from the northern sector are more acidic than those from the southern sector. Evidence for submarine hydrothermal mineralization has been observed at four seamounts along the Izu-Bonin Arc (Myojin Knoll, Myojinsho, Suiyo Seamount, and Kaikata Caldera), and submarine hydrothermal activity is evident at another three seamounts along the arc (Kurose Hole, Mokuyo Seamount, and Doyo Seamount). The most extensive submarine hydrothermal mineral deposit so far located on the Izu-Bonin Arc is the Sunrise deposit at Myojin Knoll. This deposit, at least 400 m in diameter and 30 m high, is associated with black smoker venting, inactive sulfide chimneys, massive sulfides, hydrothermal Mn crusts, and a hydrothermal vent fauna. The maximum recorded temperature of the hydrothermal vents there was 278°C. Some of the sulfide chimneys contained as much as 49 μg / g Au and 3,400 μg / g Ag. The sunrise deposit is one of the largest submarine volcanic massive sulfide deposits so far discovered in midocean ridge, backarc, or arc settings and has an estimated mass of 9 x 10 6 t. This deposit may be of the Kuroko-type. The discovery of the Sunrise deposit in 1997 gives hope that other, similarly large, sulfide deposits may be found in other caldera along the Izu-Bonin Arc. The geological variability along the arc, the high seismicity, the occurrence of active volcanism and submarine hydrothermal venting, and a proven submarine hydrothermal mineral potential coupled with the proximity of the region to Japan suggest that the Izu-Bonin Arc could profitably serve as a natural laboratory for the long-term monitoring of the seafloor. 相似文献