QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF ANOMALOUS SEISMIC AMPLITUDES CAUSED BY FLUID MIGRATION

Two- (2D) and three- (3D) dimensional pre-stack and post-stack seismic reflection data are used to investigate the processes which have led to the development of amplitude anomalies on reflections in the faulted, Cenozoic overburden on the Laminaria High, Northwest Shelf of Australia. The integration of amplitude and seismic attribute maps for four key horizons (the seabed, Horizon H9, Horizon H10 and Horizon H13) with the corresponding two-way time (TWT) structure maps has identified the structural controls on the distribution of seismic anomalies. On the seabed, the main anomaly is located on the up-dip side of the fault trace, and is elongated parallel to the local time structure contours. These observations are consistent with the anomalies having developed in response to structurally-controlled fluid seepage along, and up-dip migration away from the fault trace. Amplitude anomalies associated with the deeper H9 reflector are also located adjacent to fault traces but are discordant to the local time structure contours. This observation suggests that the anomalies may be due to cemented hardgrounds that formed due to seepage when the faults intersected the palaeo-seafloor but were subsequently buried and deformed during ongoing sedimentation and fault growth/linkage. Reprocessing of the 2D and 3D seismic pre-stack data supports the seismic interpretation of amplitude anomalies at the seabed. It is concluded that these anomalies are robust – that is, they are likely to reflect geological processes and are not simply a function of the chosen seismic processing workflow – and are caused by localised changes in acoustic impedence in the subsurface. More important is that using processed data without the knowledge of the background processing sequence for the data could be an issue in any 2D or 3D seismic interpretation. For this reason the veracity of processing of any seismic data needs to be questioned, and should not be taken for granted especially if different surveys produce conflicting interpretations. 2D hydrocarbon migration modelling combined with fault slip- and dilation-tendency analyses were undertaken in order to investigate the impact of faults and host-rock lithologies on hydrocarbon seepage at the present-day sea floor. Results show that some active faults associated with amplitude anomalies (e.g. Fault F10) are critically stressed, assuming a static, and spatially homogeneous regional stress field. However, other faults associated with amplitude anomalies (e.g. Fault F11) appear not to be critically stressed. These results suggests that the “regional” stress field could, in fact, vary spatially and temporally allowing faults in different parts of the study area to become critically stressed – hence act as fluid migration pathways – at different times. The migration models show that hydrocarbon migration pathways are strongly influenced by fault-zone properties, specifically the capillary entry pressure (CEP) along faults. The dip of the sediment layers also influences hydrocarbon leakage from the subsurface to the seabed. In general, the migration models show vertical hydrocarbon migration along faults coupled with lateral migration below the seal layers and between faults. Fluids migrate along faults with two patterns of flow based on the CEP values along the faults: 1) focused – fluids migrate as a linear pattern along faults when the capillary entry pressure along the fault is within the lower range of the “background” CEP values; 2) diffuse – fluids are guided by faults when the capillary entry pressure along the fault is within the higher range of the “background” CEP values

Mud volcanism and fluid seepage at Venere mud volcano in the Calabrian Accretionary Prism (Central Mediterranean)

Cold seeps are the natural expression of the release of gases, liquids, solids, or a combination of components, which are sourced from subsurface sediments and are emitted at temperatures comparable to surface values. Understanding the processes that generate, transport, and discharge fluids and solids at the geosphere-hydrosphere interface is important, since they are part of global material recycling, impact the development of submarine ecosystems, influence sediment dynamics and stability of the seafloor, and potentially point to the occurrence of energy resources. This work has the aim of investigating the processes that govern the activity and evolution of submarine mud volcanoes (MVs) and associated cold seeps by studying Venere MV, as an example. The presented results and conclusions are based on data from two research cruises (RV METEOR M112 and RV POSEIDON POS499). They were obtained by multiple methods, including: Hydroacoustic seafloor and water column measurements by ship and an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV); visual observations, photo-mosaicking, and geological sampling by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV); sediment coring techniques including cores taken under in-situ pressures. In addition, various analyses (e.g. stable isotope analyses, XRF scans, WDS analyses, etc.) were carried out post-cruise on selected samples. Venere MV is located within a deep-sea canyon at 1600 m water depth in a forearc basin of the Calabrian accretionary prism. Two different but co-existing fluid discharge mechanisms can be characterized: 1) extrusion of mud breccia from a conduit at the summit, containing thermogenic methane and freshened pore waters indicative of a deep-source ( 3.5 km) and 2) hydrocarbon release at peripheral seeps hosting cold-seep ecosystems and authigenic carbonates along inward-dipping ring faults at the caldera edge. The interpretation of the seafloor morphologies, sediment deposits, and cold seep structures support the main conclusions that Venere MV experienced moderately extrusive but relatively continuous activity throughout the last centuries and that past sediment transport processes in the canyon affected its overall morphology. The peripheral seeps of Venere MV host sites of gas bubble release, flat carbonate pavements, mounded and ruptured carbonate domes, as well as crater-like collapse features. The observations indicate an evolution from plain to colonized seeps in soft sediments, to carbonate pavements that trap fluids, to ruptured but colonized structures, over decadal, centennial, and millennial timescales, respectively. This work presents previously unknown details on geological, geochemical, and biological processes that govern mudflow extrusions and fluid seepage not only relevant to the Calabrian accretionary prism, but also to MVs and cold-seep systems globally

Formation and Structures of Horizontal Submarine Fluid Conduit and Venting Systems Associated With Marine Seeps

Funder: Spanish Marine Science and Technology ProgramAbstract: Methane‐rich water moves through conduits beneath the seafloor whose surfaces are formed through precipitation reactions. To understand how such submarine fluid conduit and venting systems form and grow, we develop a detailed mathematical model for this reaction‐advection system and we quantify the evolution of an ensemble of similar filaments. We show that this growth can be described by a superposition of advection and dispersion. We analyze analog laboratory experiments of chemical‐garden type to study the growth of a single filament undergoing a precipitation reaction with the surrounding environment. We apply these findings to geological fluid conduit and venting systems, showing that their irregular trajectories can lead to very effective spreading within the surrounding seabed, thus enhancing contact and exchanges of chemicals between the conduit and external fluids. We discuss how this methane venting leads to the formation of marine authigenic carbonate rocks, and for confirmation, we analyze two field samples from the Gulf of Cadiz for composition and mineralogy of the precipitates. We note the implications of this work for hydrate melting and methane escape from the seabed

Chemical and physical dynamics of marine pockmarks with insights into the organic carbon cycling on the Malin Shelf and in Dunmanus Bay, Ireland.

Pockmarks are specific type of marine geological setting resembling craters or pits. They are considered surface expression of fluid flow in the marine subsurface. Pockmarks are widespread in the aquatic environment but the understanding of their formation mechanisms, relationship with marine macro- and micro-biota and their geochemistry remains limited. Despite numerous findings of these features in Irish waters they received little attention and remain poorly studied. In this work extensive geophysical data sets collected by the Irish National Seabed Survey and its successor the INFOMAR project as well in situ sediment samples were utilized to provide baseline information on the nature of some of these features, the processes they are fuelled by and their geochemical characteristics. Pockmarks from open shelf (Malin Shelf) and bay, fjord like environment (Dunmanus Bay) are compared and theories of their formation are formulated. Sediment from these features was extensively studied utilizing advanced geotechnical and geochemical tools to describe and quantify processes taking place in the subsurface. Organic matter was characterized on a molecular level by combined biomarker and advanced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance approach

Carbonatos autigénicos e estruturas de escape de fluidos no Golfo de Cádis

Doutoramento em GeociênciasEste trabalho foca-se no estudo das ocorrências de carbonatos autigénicos do Golfo de Cádis. A mineralogia, textura e valores de δ13Ccarbonatos indica que as diferentes litologias são formadas a partir de oxidação de metano que induz a cimentação dos sedimentos por precipitação de dolomite, calcite magnesiana, calcite e aragonite autigénicas. Os diferentes carbonatos autigénicos derivados de metano (CADM) ocorrem associados a vulcões e cones de lama, cristas diapiricas ou ao longo de falhas. Dois grupos distintos de CADM foram descritos. Um grupo cuja mineralogia é dominada por dolomite e que ocorrem como crostas, chaminés ou nódulos, e um outro grupo com a mineralogia dominada por aragonite e que ocorrem sub a forma de crostas, pavimentos ou montículos, no fundo do mar. Os diferentes grupos de CADM reflectem diferentes ambientes geoquímicos de formação. Os CADM aragoniticos formam-se próximo da interface sedimento/água, enquanto que os CADM dolomíticos formam-se por cimentação ao longo de condutas por onde o fluido circulou dentro da coluna sedimentar em ambientes confinados relativamente à água do mar. A ocorrência destes CADM é interpretada como indicadora de extenso escape de metano na área do Golfo de Cádis. Biomarcadores indicadores de Archaea capaz de realizar oxidação anaeróbica de metano (OAM) e biomarcadores indicadores de bactérias sulfato-redutoras foram identificados nas amostras de CADM. Estes resultados, apoiados também pelas observações de microscópio electrónico e micro-texturas características dos CADM, confirmam um activo envolvimento microbiano na formação destes CADM. A composição isotópica destes CADM indica que na sua formação estiveram envolvidos fluidos intersticiais com um claro contributo de água resultante da dissociação de hidratos de metano. As idades de amostras representativas de CADM, calculadas pela análise de U/Th indica que estes carbonatos se formaram no decorrer dos últimos 250 ka, em períodos correlacionados com rápidas variações paleoceanográficas, como as terminações dos períodos glaciares.This work focus on the occurrences of authigenic carbonates in the Gulf of Cadiz. Mineralogy, texture and δ13Ccarbonate values clearly indicate that the different carbonate lithologies are methane-derived (MDAC), formed by the lithification of sediments as result of the precipitation of authigenic dolomite, calcite, Mg-calcite and aragonite. The MDAC are found associated with mud volcanoes and mud cones, diapiric ridges or along faults. Two distinct groups of MDAC were described in the Gulf of Cadiz. A group dominated by dolomite mineralogy (dolomite crusts, nodules and chimneys) and a group of aragonite dominated carbonates (aragonite pavements, slabs, crusts and buildups). The different MDAC morphologic types reflect different geochemical formation environments. The aragonite pavements represent precipitation of authigenic carbonates at the sediment-seawater interface or close to it. The dolomite nodules, crusts and chimneys result from the cementation along fluid conduits inside the sediment column, in more confined geochemical environments. The widespread abundance of MDAC is interpreted as an evidence of several episodes of extensive methane seepage in the Gulf of Cadiz. Specific 13C-depleted lipid biomarkers indicating archaea involvement in the anaerobic oxidation of methane and bacterial lipid biomarkers also 13Cdepleted and related to sulphate reducing bacteria were both identified on the MDAC. These results, substantiated by SEM observations and by microbial related microfabrics, confirm that microbial activity has played an important role in carbonate authigenesis. Considering the minimum and maximum temperature limits admitted to be possible to occur in the Gulf of Cadiz, some of the MDAC samples indicate a formation from 18O-enriched pore fluids, interpreted as resulting from a contribution of dissociated gas hydrates to the pore waters from which the authigenic carbonates were formed. The estimated U/Th ages of selected dolomite chimneys indicate episodes of intense precipitation of the authigenic carbonates, at least during the last 250 ka, that correlate with periods of rapid paleoceanographic changes as the onsets of glacial/interglacial terminations