Seabed fluid expulsion along the upper slope and outer shelf of the U.S. Atlantic continental margin

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 41 (2014): 96-101, doi:10.1002/2013GL058048.Identifying the spatial distribution of seabed fluid expulsion features is crucial for understanding the substrate plumbing system of any continental margin. A 1100 km stretch of the U.S. Atlantic margin contains more than 5000 pockmarks at water depths of 120 m (shelf edge) to 700 m (upper slope), mostly updip of the contemporary gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Advanced attribute analyses of high-resolution multichannel seismic reflection data reveal gas-charged sediment and probable fluid chimneys beneath pockmark fields. A series of enhanced reflectors, inferred to represent hydrate-bearing sediments, occur within the GHSZ. Differential sediment loading at the shelf edge and warming-induced gas hydrate dissociation along the upper slope are the proposed mechanisms that led to transient changes in substrate pore fluid overpressure, vertical fluid/gas migration, and pockmark formation.The U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission funded this research.2014-07-0

Marine geophysical study of cyclic sedimentation and shallow sill intrusion in the floor of the Central Gulf of California

A new marine geophysical study in the central Gulf of California provides new insights into uppercrustal processes associated with the transition from continental rifting to seafloor spreading. This research is based on the collection and processing of multibeam bathymetry, 3.5 kHz profiles, and two multichannel seismic (MCS) reflection grids collected throughout the central Gulf of California. One high-resolution MCS profile collected across the Southern Trough of Guaymas Basin shows alternations of seismically transparent sedimentary units and horizontally layered strata with high-amplitude internal reflectors. Correlation with DSDP drilling results reveals that reflector alternations are due to cyclical changes between diatomaceous mud turbidites and mud turbidites rich in terrigenous clastics driven by glacial/interglacial cyclicity. This correlation is also supported by the spatial extent of the seismic units, specifically the distance off-axis at which they intercept an intrusion-sediment complex that spreads away from the axis at ̃23 km/Myr. Seismic stratigraphy also shows that during glacials, accumulation rates in the southwest part of Guaymas Basin increased significantly, filling the axial trough. During interglacials, greater aridity and higher sea-level reduced the delivery of terrigneous clastics and axial extension outpaced sedimentation, resulting in regeneration of the axial rift relief. Throughout the central Gulf, analysis of MCS and 3.5 kHz profiles and multibeam bathymetry reveals extensive evidence of shallow, young magmatic intrusions into unconsolidated hemipelagic muds blanketing axial troughs, off-axis oceanic crust, and thinned continental crust. Multiple sills 1-2 km in diameter have a characteristic concave-upwards profile are most common as off-axis intrusions into unconsolidated hemipelagic muds flooring the Guaymas, Carmen, and Farallon Basins, and within the sediment cover of subsided continental crust at the basins' margins. Integration of geophysical datasets suggests that concave-upwards sills have circular to elliptical three-dimensional geometry. Plotting concave upwards sill width against emplacement depth reveals an overall linear trend (deeper = wider sill) and modeling results suggest emplacement depth as a main control on sill structure. MCS and 3.5 kHz profiles also show extensive evidence of hydrothermal fluid flow and hydrocarbon generation above multiple sills including pipe -like features, pockmarks, acoustic turbidity, bright spots, negative polarities, and eye-like structures interpreted as hydrothermal deposit

Seismic attribute detection of faults and fluid pathways within an active strike-slip shear zone: New insights from high-resolution 3D P-Cable™ seismic data along the Hosgri Fault, offshore California

Poststack data conditioning and neural-network seismic attribute workflows are used to detect and visualize faulting and fluid migration pathways within a 13.7 km2 13.7 km2 3D P-Cable™ seismic volume located along the Hosgri Fault Zone offshore central California. The high-resolution 3D volume used in this study was collected in 2012 as part of Pacific Gas and Electric’s Central California Seismic Imaging Project. Three-dimensional seismic reflection data were acquired using a triple-plate boomer source (1.75 kJ) and a short-offset, 14-streamer, P-Cable system. The high-resolution seismic data were processed into a prestack time-migrated 3D volume and publically released in 2014. Postprocessing, we employed dip-steering (dip and azimuth) and structural filtering to enhance laterally continuous events and remove random noise and acquisition artifacts. In addition, the structural filtering was used to enhance laterally continuous edges, such as faults. Following data conditioning, neural-network based meta-attribute workflows were used to detect and visualize faults and probable fluid-migration pathways within the 3D seismic volume. The workflow used in this study clearly illustrates the utility of advanced attribute analysis applied to high-resolution 3D P-Cable data. For example, results from the fault attribute workflow reveal a network of splayed and convergent fault strands within an approximately 1.3 km wide shear zone that is characterized by distinctive sections of transpressional and transtensional dominance. Neural-network chimney attribute calculations indicate that fluids are concentrated along discrete faults in the transtensional zones, but appear to be more broadly distributed amongst fault bounded anticlines and structurally controlled traps in the transpressional zones. These results provide high-resolution, 3D constraints on the relationships between strike-slip fault mechanics, substrate deformation, and fluid migration along an active fault system offshore central California

Supplemental Material: High-resolution geophysical and geochronological analysis of a relict shoreface deposit offshore central California: Implications for slip rate along the Hosgri fault

File S1 consists of additional sediment core and chirp figures. File S2 provides additional details and figures on the optical stimulated luminescence sampling and dating. File S3 provides details on the Bayesian age modeling conducted. </p

Fluid accumulation along the Costa Rica subduction thrust and development of the seismogenic zone

20 pages, 12 figuresIn 2011 we acquired an 11 × 55 km, 3-D seismic reflection volume across the Costa Rica margin, NW of the Osa Peninsula, to accurately image the subduction thrust in 3-D, to examine fault zone properties, and to infer the hydrogeology that controls fluid accumulation along the thrust. Following processing to remove water column multiples, noise, and acquisition artifacts, we constructed a 3-D seismic velocity model for Kirchhoff prestack depth migration imaging. Images of the plate boundary thrust show high-reflection amplitudes underneath the middle to lower slope that we attribute to fluid-rich, poorly drained portions of the subduction thrust. At ∼ 5 km subseafloor, beneath the upper slope, the plate interface abruptly becomes weakly reflective, which we interpret as a transition to a well-drained subduction thrust. Mineral dehydration during diagenesis may also diminish at 5 km subseafloor to reduce fluid production and contribute to the downdip change from high to low amplitude. There is also a layered fabric and systems of both thrust and normal faults within the overriding plate that form a >plumbing system.> Faults commonly have fault plane reflections and are presumably fluid charged. The faults and layered fabric form three compartmentalized hydrogeologic zones: (1) a shallow NE dipping zone beneath the slope, (2) a steeply SW dipping zone beneath the shelf slope break, and (3) a NE dipping zone beneath the shelf. The more direct pathway in the middle zone drains the subduction thrust more efficiently and contributes to reduced fluid pressure, elevates effective stress, and creates greater potential for unstable coseismic slip. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights ReservedAmerican Geophysical UnionThis project was funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation, OCE-0851380. This is UTIG contribution 2792Peer Reviewe

Structural controls on the hydrogeology of the Costa Rica subduction thrust NW of the Osa Peninisula

American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, 9-13 December 2013, San FranciscoThree-dimensional seismic reflection data from the Costa Rica margin NW of the Osa peninsula have enabled us to map the subduction megathrust from the trench to ~12 km subseafloor beneath the shelf. The subduction thrust has a large, abrupt downdip transition in seismic reflection amplitude from very high to low amplitude 6 km subseafloor beneath the upper slope. This transition broadly corresponds with an increase in concentration of microseismic earthquakes potentially due to a significant increase in plate coupling (Bangs et al., 2012, AGU Fall Meeting, T13A-2587), thus linking seismic reflection amplitude to fluid content and mechanical coupling along the fault. A detailed look at the overriding plate reflectivity shows numerous high-amplitude, continuous seismic reflections through the upper plate, many of which are clearly reversed-polarity from the seafloor reflection and are thus likely active fluid conduits through the overriding margin wedge, the slope cover sediment, and the seafloor. Broadly, the structural grain of the margin wedge trends E-W and dips landward across the lower slope and onto the shelf, presumably due to stress imparted by subducting ridges. However, directly above the abrupt high-to-low plate-boundary reflection amplitude transition, structures within the overlying margin wedge reverse dip, steepen, and change strike to an ESE direction. Within this zone we interpret a set of parallel reflections with small offsets and reverse-polarity as high-angle reverse faults that act as fluid conduits leading directly into shallow fluid migration systems described by Bangs et al., 2012 (AGU Fall Meeting, T13A-2587) and Kluesner et al. [this meeting]. The coincidence between the plate-boundary reflection amplitude patterns and the change in structure implies that the fluid migration pathways that drain the plate interface are locally disrupted by overriding plate structure in two possible ways: 1) by focusing up dip fluid migration along the plate interface into a thinner but richer fluid zone along the subduction thrust, or 2) by creating a more direct, nearly vertical route along high-angle reverse faults through the overlying margin wedge to the seafloor (possibly shortened by a factor of two) and draining deeper portions of the plate-boundary more efficientlyPeer reviewe

High density of structurally controlled, shallow to deep water fluid seep indicators imaged offshore Costa Rica

21 pages, 15 figuresWe used high-resolution mapping to document 161 sites of potential fluid seepage on the shelf and slope regions where no geophysical seep indicators had been reported. Identified potential seabed seepage sites show both high-backscatter anomalies and bathymetric expressions, such as pockmarks, mounds, and ridges. Almost all identified seabed features are associated with bright spots and flat spots beneath, as mapped within the 3-D seismic grid. We obtained EM122 multi-beam data using closely spaced receiver beams and 4-5 times overlapping multi-beam swaths, which greatly improved the sounding density and geologic resolvability of the data. At least one location shows an acoustic plume in the water column on a 3.5 kHz profile, and this plume is located along a fault trace and above surface and subsurface seepage indicators. Fluid indicators are largely associated with folds and faults within the sediment section, and many of the faults continue into and offset the reflective basement. A dense pattern of normal faults is seen on the outer shelf in the multi-beam bathymetry, backscatter, and 3-D seismic data, and the majority of fluid seepage indicators lie along mapped fault traces. Furthermore, linear mounds, ridges, and pockmark chains are found on the upper, middle, and lower slope regions. The arcuate shape of the shelf edge, projection of the Quepos Ridge, and high density of potential seep sites suggest that this area may be a zone of former seamount/ridge subduction. These results demonstrate a much greater potential seep density and distribution than previously reported across the Costa Rican margin. ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights ReservedThis work has been supported by NSF grants OCE-0851529 and OCE-0851380Peer Reviewe

A recent phase of accretion along the southern Costa Rican subduction zone

12 pages, 9 figuresIn 2011 we acquired a 3D seismic reflection volume across the Costa Rica margin NW of the Osa Peninsula to investigate the complex structure and the development of the seismogenic zone within the Costa Rican subduction zone in the vicinity of recent International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) drilling. In contrast to previous interpretations, these newly acquired seismic images show that the margin wedge is composed of a layered fabric that is consistent with clastic sediments, similar to materials recovered from IODP drilling, that have been thrust and thickened into thrust-bounded folded sequences. These structures are consistent with a balanced sequence that has been frontally accreted in the context of an accretionary model. We interpret these sequences as sediment originally deposited on the subducting crust in a trench basin created by the southward migration of the Cocos-Nazca-Caribbean triple junction, and accreted during recent margin subduction that also accelerated with passage of the triple junction. The margin is composed of relatively rapidly accreted sediment that was added to the margin during a phase of accretion within the last ~5 Ma that was probably preceded throughout the Neogene by periods of non-accretion or erosionThis work was supported by National Science Foundation Grant numbers 1435386 and 0851380Peer Reviewe

Actively dewatering fluid-rich zones along the Costa Rica plate boundary fault

AGU Fall Meeting 3–7 December 2012, San Francisco, CaliforniaNew 3D seismic reflection data reveal distinct evidence for active dewatering above a 12 km wide segment of the plate boundary fault within the Costa Rica subduction zone NW of the Osa Peninsula. In the spring of 2011 we acquired a 11 x 55 km 3D seismic reflection data set on the R/V Langseth using four 6,000 m streamers and two 3,300 in3 airgun arrays to examine the structure of the Costa Rica margin from the trench into the seismogenic zone. We can trace the plate-boundary interface from the trench across our entire survey to where the plate-boundary thrust lies > 10 km beneath the margin shelf. Approximately 20 km landward of the trench beneath the mid slope and at the updip edge of the seismogenic zone, a 12 km wide zone of the plate-boundary interface has a distinctly higher-amplitude seismic reflection than deeper or shallower segments of the fault. Directly above and potentially directly connected with this zone are high-amplitude, reversed-polarity fault-plane reflections that extend through the margin wedge and into overlying slope sediment cover. Within the slope cover, high-amplitude reversed-polarity reflections are common within the network of closely-spaced nearly vertical normal faults and several broadly spaced, more gently dipping thrust faults. These faults appear to be directing fluids vertically toward the seafloor, where numerous seafloor fluid flow indicators, such as pockmarks, mounds and ridges, and slope failure features, are distinct in multibeam and backscatter images. There are distinctly fewer seafloor and subsurface fluid flow indicators both updip and downdip of this zone. We believe these fluids come from a 12 km wide fluid-rich segment of the plate-boundary interface that is likely overpressured and has relatively low shear stress. © 2014 American Geophysical Union. All Rights ReservedPeer Reviewe

Mega-pockmarks surrounding IODP Site U1414: Insights from the CRISP 3D seismic survey

American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, 9-13 December 2013, San FranciscoVisualization of neural network meta-attribute analyses reveals fluid migration pathways associated with mega-pockmarks within the CRISP 3D seismic volume offshore southern Costa Rica, near site U1414 of IODP Expedition 344. A 245km2 field of mega-pockmarks was imaged on the Cocos Ridge using EM122 multibeam bathymetry, backscatter and 3D seismic reflection aboard R/V Marcus G. Langseth during the 2011 CRISP seismic survey. We utilize the OpendTect software package to calculate supervised neural network meta-attributes within the 3D seismic volume, in order to detect and visualize probable faults and fluid-migration pathways within the sedimentary section of the incoming Cocos plate [see Kluesner et al., this meeting]. Pockmarks imaged within the 3D volume near the trench commonly show a two-tier structure with upper pockmarks located above the steep walls of deeper, older pockmarks. The latter appear to truncate surrounding strata, including widespread high-amplitude reverse polarity reflectors (RPRs), interpreted as trapping horizons. In addition, RPRs are also truncated by positive polarity crosscutting reflections (CCRs), most of which form the base and sides of lens-like structures below the RPRs that are frequently located next to imaged pockmarks. Site U1414 intersects one of these lens-like structures and this appears to correlate to a sharp density and porosity swing observed at ~255 mbsf. In addition, preliminary geochemical analyses from site U1414 show evidence of lateral fluid flow through sediments below the RPR [Expedition 344 Scientists, 2013]. Thus, we interpret the 3D lens-like structures to be pockets of trapped gas and/or over-pressured fluid. Based on 3D imaging we propose a 3-stage pockmark evolution: (1) Overpressure and blowout along RPRs, resulting in pockmark formation, (2) sustained seepage along pockmark walls, resulting in preferential deposition near the center of the pockmark, and (3) rapid burial as pockmarks near the trench axis. On the seafloor, small high-backscatter mounds are found near the walls of a subset of pockmarks, suggesting recent or active seafloor seepage. Further geochemical analyses are needed to determine the source of fluid/gas migration associated with the pockmark structures.Peer Reviewe