Detecting hydrate and fluid flow from bottom simulating reflector depth anomalies

Methane hydrates, ice-like compounds that consist of water and methane, represent a potentially enormous unconventional methane resource that may play a critical role in climate change and ocean acidification; however, it remains unclear how much hydrate exists. Here, using a newly developed three-d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2012-03, Vol.40 (3), p.227-230
Main Authors: Hornbach, Matthew J, Bangs, Nathan L, Berndt, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aliphatic hydrocarbons
alkanes
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
bottom-simulating reflectors
Climate change
Continental dynamics
continental margin
detection
Drilling
East Pacific
Economic geology
energy sources
Estimates
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Fluids
gas hydrates
geophysical methods
Geophysics
Hydrate Ridge
Hydrates
hydrocarbons
marine sediments
Methane
natural gas
North Pacific
Northeast Pacific
Oceanography
offshore
Oregon
organic compounds
Pacific Ocean
petroleum
petroleum exploration
potential deposits
Sedimentary geology
Sediments
seismic methods
thermal analysis
Three dimensional
three-dimensional models
United States
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Summary:Methane hydrates, ice-like compounds that consist of water and methane, represent a potentially enormous unconventional methane resource that may play a critical role in climate change and ocean acidification; however, it remains unclear how much hydrate exists. Here, using a newly developed three-dimensional (3-D) thermal technique, we reveal a novel method for detecting and quantifying methane hydrate. The analysis reveals where fluids migrate in three dimensions across a continental margin and is used to quantify hydrate with meter-scale horizontal resolution. Our study, located at Hydrate Ridge, offshore Oregon (United States), suggests that heat flow and hydrate concentrations are coupled and that 3-D thermal analysis can be used to constrain hydrate and fluid flow in 3-D seismic data. Hydrate estimates using this technique are consistent with 1-D drilling results, but reveal large, previously unrecognized swaths of hydrate-rich sediments that have gone undetected due to spatially limited drilling and sampling techniques used in past studies. The 3-D analysis suggests that previous hydrate estimates based on drilling at this site are low by a factor of approximately three.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G32635.1