Detecting hydrate and fluid flow from bottom simulating reflector depth anomalies

[OKIsItJustMe]

Last edited Fri Jan 27, 2012, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)

http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2012/01/23/G32635.1.abstract

[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif][font size=5]Detecting hydrate and fluid flow from bottom simulating reflector depth anomalies[/font]

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[font size=4]Abstract[/font]

[font size=3]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.[/font][/font]

http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G32635.1

[BlueToTheBone]

1. Does this suggest that the flow rate is 3x faster?

and that the toxic chemicals are moving further and faster?