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1.
Over 25,300 seabed pockmarks were mapped from the Rosetta Channel region of the Western Nile Deep Sea Fan (NDSF) using concurrent High Resolution 2D, Chirp profiler and multibeam bathymetry data which spans the Holocene–Pleistocene period. Within the region, a pockmark field containing >13,800 pockmarks was analysed using spatial statistics to determine the distribution of pockmarks within the field. Pockmarks within the field are small (∼16 m diameter), shallow (∼0.5 m deep) circular depressions which formed within the last ∼ 6500 years. The fluid source for the field is identified as an accumulation/generation of gas beneath a hemipelagic seal c. 20–40 ms beneath the seabed. The position of the pockmarks is shown to be unrelated to the depth to the fluid source and an irregular high amplitude acoustic anomaly which is tentatively interpreted as a possible carbonate precipitate of biogenic microbial activity. Statistical spatial analysis of the field confirms the distribution of pockmarks is not random. An exclusion zone surrounding each individual pockmark is identified. The exclusion zone is a unique minimum radius around each pockmark which is not penetrated by any other pockmark. The exclusion zone works in unison with Self-Organised Criticality (SOC) in determining the spatial distribution of pockmarks within the field. The exclusion zone is interpreted as a pockmark “drainage cell”. A conceptual model for a pockmark drainage cell is proposed whereby pockmark formation dissipates a radius/area of fluid and overpressure, thereby preventing the formation of another pockmark within that cell. Consequently, pockmarks are observed to separate or produce anti-clustering tendencies within the field.  相似文献   

2.
Pockmarks in the inner Oslofjord,Norway   总被引：5，自引：3，他引：2  
Multibeam bathymetric surveys of the Inner Oslofjord, Norway have revealed a high density of pockmarks in the 179-km2 inner fjord area, which contains over 500 pockmarks of varying size, typically 20–50 m in diameter and 2–10 m deep. These pockmarks have been investigated with a variety of techniques, including acoustic subbottom profiling, sedimentological and geochemical analyses of cores, remotely operated vehicle observation, and morphometry. Both the distribution and shapes of the pockmarks suggest that they are related to structures in the bedrock underlying relatively thin (<50 m) unconsolidated glacial and postglacial sediments. The data provide no direct indication of a particular mode of pockmark formation, but release of large amounts of biogenic, shallow methane seems unlikely. Several lines of evidence point to a continuous process of pockmark formation followed by inactivity, with some pockmarks recently active whereas others have been inactive for a considerable time. Some pockmarks are characterised by coarse sediment in their centres. The density, variety and easy access make this pockmark field an ideal model area for pockmark research. John S. Gray is deceased.  相似文献   

3.
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4.
海底麻坑是由地层中流体向海底快速喷发或缓慢渗漏所形成的一种凹陷地貌,对其形态及成因机理进行深入研究具有重要意义。本研究基于高分辨率多波束地形、侧扫声纳、浅地层剖面及多道地震探测数据,对舟山群岛东部青浜岛海域发育的麻坑及其微地貌进行研究,分析表明:研究区发育有3个大型麻坑,并受到NE—SW向底流的改造而出现不同程度沿此方向的拉长,呈新月形或拉长形。麻坑侧壁呈现西陡东缓、西高东低的特征。3个大型麻坑内部发育有小的次级单元麻坑,或形成复合麻坑和链状麻坑等。麻坑之下地层出现声学浑浊等浅层气特征反射。在麻坑内外分别钻孔取样进行烃类气体的同位素分析,结果表明形成麻坑的流体为生物成因的甲烷气。研究区3个大型麻坑是在台风活动诱发下,由第四系地层中的甲烷气猛烈喷溢形成,而麻坑微地貌则是在随后发生的海底浅层气小规模缓慢逃逸形成的。  相似文献   

5.
Mechanisms and timescales responsible for pockmark formation and maintenance remain uncertain, especially in areas lacking extensive thermogenic fluid deposits (e.g., previously glaciated estuaries). This study characterizes seafloor activity in the Belfast Bay, Maine nearshore pockmark field using (1) three swath bathymetry datasets collected between 1999 and 2008, complemented by analyses of shallow box-core samples for radionuclide activity and undrained shear strength, and (2) historical bathymetric data (report and smooth sheets from 1872, 1947, 1948). In addition, because repeat swath bathymetry surveys are an emerging data source, we present a selected literature review of recent studies using such datasets for seafloor change analysis. This study is the first to apply the method to a pockmark field, and characterizes macro-scale (>5 m) evolution of tens of square kilometers of highly irregular seafloor. Presence/absence analysis yielded no change in pockmark frequency or distribution over a 9-year period (1999–2008). In that time pockmarks did not detectably enlarge, truncate, elongate, or combine. Historical data indicate that pockmark chains already existed in the 19th century. Despite the lack of macroscopic changes in the field, near-bed undrained shear-strength values of less than 7 kPa and scattered downcore 137Cs signatures indicate a highly disturbed setting. Integrating these findings with independent geophysical and geochemical observations made in the pockmark field, it can be concluded that (1) large-scale sediment resuspension and dispersion related to pockmark formation and failure do not occur frequently within this field, and (2) pockmarks can persevere in a dynamic estuarine setting that exhibits minimal modern fluid venting. Although pockmarks are conventionally thought to be long-lived features maintained by a combination of fluid venting and minimal sediment accumulation, this suggests that other mechanisms may be equally active in maintaining such irregular seafloor morphology. One such mechanism could be upwelling within pockmarks induced by near-bed currents.  相似文献   

6.
Hundreds of depressions (pockmarks) were found within a 40 square kilometer area of the sea floor near the head of Penobscot Bay, Maine. These roughly circular depressions range in diameter from 10 to 300 meters and extend as much as 30 meters below the surrounding sea floor. The pockmarks have formed in marine mud of Holocene age, which unconformably overlies glaciomarine deposits.The presence of shallow interstitial gas in the mud suggests that the pockmarks are related to the excipe of gas from the sediments, although other factors must be involved.  相似文献   

7.
This study addresses the morphology of pockmarks along the western continental margin of India using multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data. Here, for the first time we have utilized the application of ArcGIS (Geographical Information System) for understanding the morphology of pockmarks from the western continental margin of India. The pockmarks observed in water depths of 145–330 m are circular, elliptical or elongated in plan-view, with an average length and width of 157 (±72) m and 83 (±19) m respectively. The average pockmark relief and perimeter are 1.9 (±0.9) m and 412 (±181) m, respectively. The pockmarks have average areas and volumes of 10 759 m2 and 15 315 m3 respectively. Spatial separation that coincides with 210 m isobath divides the pockmarks into two groups with differing distributions and morphologies. These pockmarks originated from seepages of biogenic or thermogenic gas or from pore fluids from deeper sources, migrated vertically along the faults. Besides a possible structural control, the pockmark morphologies are also affected by bottom currents and/or by submarine slumping. The average acoustic backscatter strength from pockmark centre is higher (−35 dB) than the average backscatter of the total area (−40 dB), which suggests their possible linkage to the precipitation of diagenitic minerals from biodegradation of seepage material.  相似文献   

8.
During a recent oceanographical-geophysical survey carried out in the southeastern part of the Gulf of Patras in Western Greece for the construction of an outfall, an active pockmark field was found. The pockmark field was formed in soft layered Holocene silts. The pockmarks are associated with acoustic anomalies attributed to gas-charged sediments. The pockmarks vary in size and shape from 25 to 250 m in diameter and from 0.5 to 15 m in depth and are among the largest and deepest observed in the world.

On July 14th, 1993, during the survey, a major earthquake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred in the area. During the 24 hour period prior to the earthquake the bottom water temperature anomalously increased on three occasions, whilst for a few days after the earthquake it was noted that the majority of the pockmarks were venting gas bublles.

It is considered that the three abrupt sea-water temperature increases were probably the result of upward migrating high-temperature gas bubbles in the water column. It is further suggested that the earthquake was the triggering mechanism and that the gas expulsion was caused by the reduction in the pore volume in the sediments resulting from changes in the stress regime prior to the earthquake. Therefore, it can be suggested that in seismic areas adjacent to pockmark fields, earthquake prediction may be achieved by monitoring the water temperature and/or the rate of gas venting in the pockmark field.

Our analysis indicates that the pockmark field in the Patras Gulf has formed slowly during the Holocene by continuous gas venting, which is periodically being interrupted by short-duration events of enhanced gas seepage triggered by earthquakes.  相似文献   


9.
High-resolution seafloor and sub-surface data were acquired as part of a site survey in Iskenderun Bay, SE Turkey to characterize the geohazards at the location of the proposed drilling site. A 3 km×3 km geophysical study reveals a pockmark field which trends NE and NNE, similar to the trend of major fault systems in the area. The pockmarks, with an average diameter of 35 m, reach their highest density in the northern part of the detailed survey area, with 13 features/km2. Acoustic anomalies in the seismic records (acoustic turbidity, blanking, enhanced reflectors) below the proposed drilling site indicated potential shallow gas beneath it. The local seismic anomalies (amplitude and frequency) parallel to stratigraphy were assigned a low gas risk. As a result of the active neotectonics in the area, the pockmark field presented a potential hazard for drilling at the original location. The geohazard study resulted in moving the proposed drilling site eastward to an area of fewer pockmarks, less sub-surface seismic anomalies, and thus a location interpreted as a lower geohazard environment.  相似文献   

10.
The Nyegga region, located at water depths of about 600–800 m on the NW European continental margin, contains more than 200 pockmarks. Recently collected TOPAS seismic profiles and EM1002 bathymetric records now provide high-resolution information on their seabed and shallow sub-seabed geological setting. The identified pockmarks are up to 15 m deep, between 30 m and 600 m across and reach a maximum area of ca. 315,000 m2. The pockmarks are sediment-empty features. They do not have any preferred direction of orientation and show large variations in their shape. The pockmarks are restricted to a <16.2 cal. ka old sediment unit. This unit comprises sandy mud and is characterised by sedimentation rates of ca. 1 mm/year. The pockmarks are localised over a thick late Plio-Pleistocene prograding sediment package and a polygonal faulted Miocene-Oligocene ooze-rich unit. The late Plio-Plistocene deposits host bottom simulating reflectors, indicative of gas hydrate-bearing sediments. Inspection of the newly collected high-resolution dataset, combined with previously analysed sediment cores and 2D multichannel seismic profiles, reveals that the Nyegga pockmark field does not show any strong relationship between seabed features, sub-seabed structures and the sedimentary setting. This suggests a more complex evolution history of the Nyegga pockmark field then previously thought.  相似文献   

11.
Multibeam bathymetric data collected in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, have revealed two areas of seabed disturbance, interpreted to be faults. The easterly fault zone (Fraser Delta Fault) is demarked by a pockmark chain extending along strike of a southwesterly-dipping fault offset 1 km to the northeast and having a throw of over 50 m. The pockmarks occur in a region of high sedimentation, located in the Fraser River prodelta. The eastern strait fault zone (Porlier Pass Fault) occurs within a fold of the Cretaceous Nanaimo Group. Here, a series of thrust faults displace sediments from Cretaceous to Holocene by up to 40 m with over 2 km of surface expression. Based on Holocene stratigraphic displacement in an area of significant sedimentation, these fault zones are considered to be active.  相似文献   

12.
南海礼乐盆地海底麻坑地貌及成因分析   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
本文基于高分辨率多波束测深和浅地层剖面数据，首次对南海礼乐盆地南部坳陷海底麻坑进行了系统的识别研究。共识别出各类麻坑81个，其中麻坑直径最大约2.4 km，坑深最大约157 m。麻坑种类多样:按平面形态主要分为圆形、椭圆形、拉长形和新月形麻坑；按组合方式分为孤立麻坑、链状麻坑和复合麻坑；按直径分为正常麻坑和大型麻坑。区域内发育多条大型海底峡谷，峡谷侵蚀引起两侧地层稳定性降低，气体储层遭受破坏，泄露的气体沿断层或气烟囱等喷发出海底形成麻坑。而因麻坑生成时剥蚀的沉积物质与周围水体混合并逐渐发展成浊流，在一定程度上促进海底峡谷向下延伸。研究区内单个麻坑的平面形态最初为圆形或椭圆形，之后由于重力流和峡谷侵蚀的影响，逐渐发展成拉长形或新月形，麻坑之间也会发生组合形成复合麻坑。链状麻坑与冲沟的形成联系密切，沿垂直于等深线方向展布的链状麻坑在重力流的冲刷下，发育成底部平坦的麻坑冲沟。对比分析全球其他海域麻坑，发现海底麻坑尺寸与水深关系密切，在深水区域更容易发育大型麻坑。  相似文献   

13.
An analysis of 3D seismic data from the Zhongjiannan Basin in the western margin of the South China Sea (SCS) reveals seismic evidence of gas hydrates and associated gases, including pockmarks, a bottom simulating reflector (BSR), enhanced reflection (ER), reverse polarity reflection (RPR), and a dim amplitude zone (DAZ). The BSR mainly surrounds Zhongjian Island, covering an area of 350 km2 in this 3D survey area. The BSR area and pockmark area do not match each other; where there is a pockmark developed, there is no BSR. The gas hydrate layer builds upward from the base of the stability zone with a thickness of less than 100 m. A mature pockmark usually consists of an outside trough, a middle ridge, and one or more central pits, with a diameter of several kilometers and a depth of several hundreds of meters. The process of pockmark creation entails methane consumption. Dense faults in the study area efficiently transport fluid from large depths to the shallow layer, supporting the formation of gas hydrate and ultimately the pockmark.  相似文献   

14.
This study describes and analyses an extraordinary array of pockmarks at the modern seabed of the Lower Congo Basin (offshore Angola), in order to understand the fluid migration routes and shallow plumbing system of the area. The 3D seismic visualization of feeding conduits (pipes) allowed the identification of the source interval for the fluids expelled during pockmark formation. Spatial statistics are used to show the relationship between the underlying (polarised) polygonal fault (PPFs) patterns and seabed pockmarks distributions. Our results show PPFs control the linear arrangement of pockmarks and feeder pipes along fault strike, but faults do not act as conduits. Spatial statistics also revealed pockmark occurrence is not considered to be random, especially at short distances to nearest neighbours (<200 m) where anti-clustering distributions suggest the presence of an exclusion zone around each pockmark in which no other pockmark will form. The results of this study are relevant for the understanding of shallow fluid plumbing systems in offshore settings, with implications on our current knowledge of overall fluid flow systems in hydrocarbon-rich continental margins.  相似文献   

15.
Integrating novel and published swath bathymetry (3,980 km2), as well as chirp and high-resolution 2D seismic reflection profiles (2,190 km), this study presents the mapping of 436 pockmarks at water depths varying widely between 370 and 1,020 m on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. On the Atlantic side in the south-eastern Gulf of Cádiz near the Camarinal Sill, 198 newly discovered pockmarks occur in three well localized and separated fields: on the upper slope (n=14), in the main channel of the Mediterranean outflow water (MOW, n=160), and on the huge contourite levee of the MOW main channel (n=24) near the well-known TASYO field. These pockmarks vary in diameter from 60 to 919 m, and are sub-circular to irregularly elongated or lobate in shape. Their slope angles on average range from 3° to 25°. On the Mediterranean side of the strait on the Ceuta Drift of the western Alborán Basin, where pockmarks were already known to occur, 238 pockmarks were identified and grouped into three interconnected fields, i.e. a northern (n=34), a central (n=61) and a southern field (n=143). In the latter two fields the pockmarks are mainly sub-circular, ranging from 130 to 400 m in diameter with slope angles averaging 1.5° to 15°. In the northern sector, by contrast, they are elongated up to 1,430 m, probably reflecting MOW activity. Based on seismo-stratigraphic interpretation, it is inferred that most pockmarks formed during and shortly after the last glacial sea-level lowstand, as they are related to the final erosional discontinuity sealed by Holocene transgressive deposits. Combining these findings with other existing knowledge, it is proposed that pockmark formation on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar resulted from gas and/or sediment pore-water venting from overpressured shallow gas reservoirs entrapped in coarse-grained contourites of levee deposits and Pleistocene palaeochannel infillings. Venting was either triggered or promoted by hydraulic pumping associated with topographically forced internal waves. This mechanism is analogous to the long-known effect of tidal pumping on the dynamics of unit pockmarks observed along the Norwegian continental margin.  相似文献   

16.
Pockmarks off Big Sur, California   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
A pockmark field was discovered during EM-300 multi-beam bathymetric surveys on the lower continental slope off the Big Sur coast of California. The field contains ∼1500 pockmarks which are between 130 and 260 m in diameter, and typically are 8-12 m deep located within a 560 km2 area. To investigate the origin of these features, piston cores were collected from both the interior and the flanks of the pockmarks, and remotely operated vehicle observation (ROV) video and sampling transects were conducted which passed through 19 of the pockmarks. The water column within and above the pockmarks was sampled for methane concentration. Piston cores and ROV collected push cores show that the pockmark field is composed of monotonous fine silts and clays and the cores within the pockmarks are indistinguishable from those outside the pockmarks. No evidence for either sediment winnowing or diagenetic alteration suggestive of fluid venting was obtained. 14C measurements of the organic carbon in the sediments indicate continuous sedimentation throughout the time resolution of the radiocarbon technique (∼45?000 yr BP), with a sedimentation rate of ∼10 cm per 1000 yr both within and between the pockmarks. Concentrations of methane, dissolved inorganic carbon, sulfate, chloride, and ammonium in pore water extracted from within the cores are generally similar in composition to seawater and show little change with depth, suggesting low biogeochemical activity. These pore water chemical gradients indicate that neither significant accumulations of gas are likely to exist in the shallow subsurface (∼100 m) nor is active fluid advection occurring within the sampled sediments. Taken together the data indicate that these pockmarks are more than 45?000 yr old, are presently inactive, and contain no indications of earlier fluid or gas venting events.  相似文献   

17.
《Marine Geology》2006,225(1-4):45-62
A systematic mapping program incorporating more than 5000 km of side scan sonar and seismic reflection tracklines in the western Gulf of Maine has identified more than 70 biogenic natural gas deposits, occupying 311 km2 in nearshore muddy embayments. Many of these embayments also contain pockmark fields, with some exhibiting geologically active characteristics including the observance of plumes of escaping fluids and sediment. Pockmarks, hemispherically shaped depressions of various size and depths, formed through fluid escape of gas and/or pore water, are sometimes found within or outside gas fields, although many gas fields lack pockmarks altogether. Although the origin of the natural gas remains unclear, if coastal environments at times of lower sea level were similar to the present, numerous lake, wetland, valley fill and estuarine sources of organic-rich material may have formed on the inner shelf. If these deposits survived transgression and remain buried, they are potential gas sources.Intensive mapping of the Belfast Bay pockmark field in 1998 produced the first nearly continuous side scan sonar mosaic of a Gulf of Maine pockmark field with a corresponding 3-dimensional geological model generated from seismic data. Statistical analysis of pockmark geometry, gas deposit loci, and subsurface evidence for gas-enhanced reflectors suggest that gas migration from deeper lateral sources along permeable subsurface strata may be the mechanism for pockmark formation in areas lacking gas-curtain seismic reflections. The coarse-grained transgressive ravinement unconformity between Pleistocene glacial-marine mud and Holocene mud may act as a conduit for distributing methane to the field's margins.  相似文献   

18.
Seafloor pockmarks and subsurface chimney structures are common on the Norwegian continental margin north of the Storegga Slide scar. Such features are generally inferred to be associated with fluid expulsion, and imply overpressures in the subsurface. Six long gravity and piston cores taken from the interior of three pockmarks were compared with four other cores taken from the same area but outside the pockmarks, in order to elucidate the origins and stratigraphy of these features and their possible association with the Storegga Slide event. Sulfate gradients in cores from within pockmarks are less steep than those in cores from outside the pockmarks, which indicates that the flux of methane to the seafloor is presently smaller within the pockmarks than in the adjacent undisturbed sediments. This suggests that these subsurface chimneys are not fluid flow conduits lined with gas hydrate. Methane-derived authigenic carbonates and Bathymodiolus shells obtained from a pockmark at >6.3 m below the seafloor indicate that methane was previously available to support a chemosynthetic community within the pockmark. AMS 14C measurements of planktonic Foraminifera overlying and interlayered with the shell-bearing sediment indicate that methane was present on the seafloor within the pockmark prior to 14 ka 14C years b.p., i.e., well before the last major Storegga Slide event (7.2 ka 14C years b.p., or 8.2 ka calendar years b.p.). These observations provide evidence that overpressured fluids existed within the continental margin sediments off Norway during the last major advance of Pleistocene glaciation.  相似文献   

19.
The 15-km-long Matane pockmark train belongs to a series of NNE-striking alignments of pockmarks mapped on the seafloor of the St. Lawrence Estuary. It includes 109 pockmarks that show a complete transition from well-defined, relatively deep (up to 8.6 m), crater-like depressions to subtle, partly buried morphological features, suggesting that pockmarks have formed at different periods along the whole alignment and that the location of fluid release has changed through time. On seismic profiles, pockmarks are characterized by vertical seismic chimneys that root in the (fractured?) hinge zone of an open anticline within the autochthonous Palaeozoic rocks of the St. Lawrence Platform. In absence of a geochemical characterization of expelled gas, the relationship between the Matane pockmark train and the anticline in a domain characterized by mature source rocks is the strongest evidence for the genetic link between pockmarks and the release of gas from an active hydrocarbon system or a reservoir located in the Palaeozoic succession.
Figure
Alignment of the Matane pockmark train along a buried bedrock anticline of the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary  相似文献   

20.
This study describes a new type of pockmark association from the Lower Congo Basin offshore West Africa, consisting of up to 8 stacked paleopockmarks separated by intervals of drape and onlap fill. The stacked paleopockmarks occur within the depocentres of polygonally-faulted Plio-Pleistocene sediments and are distributed evenly in the downslope parts of two salt mini-basins. The majority of the stacked pockmarks initiated synchronously in the late Pliocene (~ 3 Ma) with a subordinate initiation phase in the mid Pliocene (~ 4 Ma). The primary agents in pockmark formation are interpreted to be pore water expelled during early-stage compaction together with biogenic methane. Bottom simulating reflections (BSRs) associated with free gas overlain by gas hydrates are currently found in the area. It is speculated that biogenic methane accumulated within and below a clathrate cap, which was repeatedly breached, forming pockmarks at discrete horizons separated by intervals of draping sedimentation. The mid and late Pliocene pockmark initiations appear to coincide with sea-level falls following periods of relatively stable highstand conditions. Several subsequent pockmark horizons may similarly correlate with subsequent sea-level falls during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. The stacked paleopockmarks are completely surrounded by polygonal faults and consistently occur within polygonal fault cells that crosscut the succession containing the stacked pockmarks. Early-stage compaction and dewatering of the Pliocene sediments thus preceded polygonal faulting, providing a constraint on the conditions leading to polygonal faulting of the fine-grained host sediments. The relationship documented here is interpreted as due to the presence of a hydrate cap in the Plio-Pleistocene mini-basins which may have retarded the normal compaction processes and facilitated pockmark formation by allowing the build up of gas hydrate and free gas in the basin centres. The relative timing and spatial relationships implies that fluids expelled due to polygonal faulting were not implicated in pockmark formation in this area.  相似文献   

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