Description: A lander-based hydroacoustic swath system, GasQuant, was deployed in an intensely bubbling seep area at the shelf west of the Crimea Peninsula, Black Sea. With its horizontally oriented swath (21 beams, 63° swath angle, 180 kHz) GasQuant operates in a sonar-like mode and monitors bubbles remotely, exploiting their strong backscattering when crossing the swath. All active seep spots were monitored simultaneously within the covered area (2075 m2). Even applying simple processing and visualization techniques (moving average for filtering, FFT for spectrum analyses; swath and trace plots) identified 17 seeps of different activity patterns that have been grouped as follows: (1) sporadically active with one to a few long bursts (up to 18 min) or randomly occurring short bursts (〈200 bursts and active for 〈5% of the observation time); (2) regularly active seeps showing mainly short bursts of less than one minute but also longer burst of a few minutes (200–350 bursts and 5 to 20% active); (3) frequently active spots with sometimes very periodic bubble release (〉350 bursts or 〉20% active). Studying the bubble release variability of single seeps and of the entire area allows speculation about the external and internal processes that modulate the bubble release. In the study area none of the 17 seeps was found to be permanently active. Only one was active for 75% and another one for 45% of the time monitored. The rest only released bubbles during less than 20% of the time with an overall average of only 12%. This would have strong implications for flux extrapolations if these were based on very accurate but few short-term measurements. Both strong overestimates and underestimates are possible. High-resolution monitoring over at least one tidal cycle as with the GasQuant system might help to get an idea of the temporal variability. Thus flux extrapolations can be corrected to better reflect the real seep activity.

Description: Dissolved methane and high resolution bathymetry surveys were conducted over the Rock Garden region of Ritchie Ridge, along the Hikurangi margin, eastern New Zealand. Multibeam bathymetry reveals two prominent, northeast trending ridges, parallel to subduction along the margin, that are steep sided and extensively slumped. Elevated concentrations of methane (up to 10 nM, 10× background) within the water column are associated with a slump structure at the southern end of Eastern Rock Garden. The anomalous methane concentrations were detected by a methane sensor (METS) attached to a conductivity‐temperature‐depth‐optical backscatter device (CTDO) and are associated with elevated light scattering and flare‐shaped backscatter signals revealed by the ship's echo sounder. Increased particulate matter in the water column, possibly related to the seepage and/or higher rates of erosion near slump structures, is considered to be the cause of the increased light scattering, rather than bubbles in the water column. Methane concentrations calculated from the METS are in good agreement with concentrations measured by gas chromatography in water samples collected at the same time. However, there is a c. 20 min (c. 900 m) delay in the METS signal reaching maximum CH4 concentrations. The maximum methane concentration occurs near the plateau of Eastern Rock Garden close to the edge of a slump, at 610 m below sea level (mbsl). This is close to the depth (c. 630 mbsl) where a bottom simulating reflector (BSR) pinches out at the seafloor. Fluctuating water temperatures observed in previous studies indicate that the stability zone for pure methane hydrate in the ocean varies between 630 and 710 mbsl. However, based on calculations of the geothermal gradients from BSRs, we suggest gas hydrate in the study area to be more stable than hydrate from pure methane in sea water, moving the phase boundary in the ocean upward. Small fractions of additional higher order hydrocarbon gases are the most likely cause for increased hydrate stability. Relatively high methane concentrations have been measured down to c. 1000 mbsl, most likely in response to sediment slumping caused by gas hydrate destabilisation of the sediments and/or marking seepage through the gas hydrate zone.