Gas hydrate pingoes: Deep seafloor evidence of focused fluid flow on continental margins

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2012/01/23/G32690.1

[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif][font size=5]Gas hydrate pingoes: Deep seafloor evidence of focused fluid flow on continental margins[/font]
…
[font size=4]Abstract[/font]

[font size=3]Gas hydrates in the shallow subsurface form one of the largest reservoirs of methane in the global organic carbon cycle. Seafloor seeps and associated features represent the venting points of methane released from the shallow lithosphere to the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Here we document the discovery of seep-related seafloor mounds in the Kwanza Basin, offshore Angola, and employ high-resolution three-dimensional seismic analysis to unravel the subsurface plumbing system and the origin of mounds. Mounds with distinct morphologies and geophysical signatures illustrate different development stages associated with the formation and dissociation of shallow gas hydrate, linked to thermogenic fluid migration along salt diapir flanks draining deeply buried salt minibasins. The mounds are more than an order of magnitude larger than previously described submarine hydrate pingoes, and comparable to hydraulic pingoes commonly found in terrestrial periglacial environments, suggesting hydrate volumes of individual mounds up to 1.1 × 10[font size=1]⁶[/font] m[font size=1]³[/font] (equivalent to 2.0 × 10[font size=1]⁸[/font] m[font size=1]³[/font] of methane gas). The interpretation of seismically well-defined seep-related seafloor mounds brings new insight to the occurrence and development of concentrated near-surface gas hydrate accumulations and their relationship with thermogenic fluid migration and host sediment properties along continental margins.

… This is a relatively small amount compared to global estimates of submarine gas hydrate volumes … Nonethe- less, the evidence presented here suggests a link to a deep plumbing system and the near-surface occurrence of consolidated sediments as a result of salt remobilization, and brings new insights for the significance of deep-sourced hydrocarbon fluids and host sediment properties controlling gas hydrate formation and manifestations of fluid venting along continental margins.[/font][/font]

http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G32690.1

[Arctic Dave]

1. DOE has been working on hydrates for a coup[le of years.

They drilled an onshore well last year and I believe they are going to try and proof it out this winter.

More cheap gas if things work out well. Not sure if it will be a good or a bad thing.

So much for climate change.

[alfredo]

2. Might as well tap them. We're toast anyway.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. We’re already bleeding…

…why not another self-inflicted wound?

Or… how about trying to do something about the wounds we already have?

[pscot]

4. Burn, baby. Burn!

Nothing like setting fire to our own neighborhood.

[alfredo]

5. The ruling class in the US and worldwide know that they will be long gone before the

bill comes due. So why should they lift a finger to help future generations?

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. “So why should they lift a finger to help future generations?”

Because they love their children too?