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  • 1
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    Fault zone controlled seafloor methane seepage in the rupture area of the 2010 Maule Earthquake, Central Chile (2016)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 17 (11). pp. 4802-4813.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2020-06-29
    Description: Seafloor seepage of hydrocarbon-bearing fluids has been identified in a number of marine forearcs. However, temporal variations in seep activity and the structural and tectonic parameters that control the seepage often remain poorly constrained. Subduction-zone earthquakes for example, are often discussed to trigger seafloor seepage but causal links that go beyond theoretical considerations have not yet been fully established. This is mainly due to the inaccessibility of offshore epicentral areas, the infrequent occurrence of large earthquakes, and challenges associated with offshore monitoring of seepage over large areas and sufficient time periods. Here, we report visual, geochemical, geophysical, and modelling results and observations from the Concepción Methane Seep Area (offshore Central Chile) located in the rupture area of the 2010 Mw. 8.8 Maule earthquake. High methane concentrations in the oceanic water column and a shallow sub-bottom depth of sulfate penetration indicate active methane seepage. The stable carbon isotope signature of the methane and hydrocarbon composition of the released gas indicate a mixture of shallow-sourced biogenic gas and a deeper sourced thermogenic component. Pristine fissures and fractures observed at the seafloor together with seismically imaged large faults in the marine forearc may represent effective pathways for methane migration. Upper-plate fault activity with hydraulic fracturing and dilation is in line with increased normal Coulomb stress during large plate-boundary earthquakes, as exemplarily modelled for the 2010 earthquake. On a global perspective our results point out the possible role of recurring large subduction-zone earthquakes in driving hydrocarbon seepage from marine forearcs over long timescales.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1002/2016GC006498
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 2
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    Quantifying tidally-driven benthic oxygen exchange across permeable sediments: An aquatic eddy correlation study (2014)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 119 (10). pp. 6918-6932.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2018-02-26
    Description: Continental shelves are predominately (~70%) covered with permeable, sandy sediments. While identified as critical sites for intense oxygen, carbon, and nutrient turnover, constituent exchange across permeable sediments remains poorly quantified. The central North Sea largely consists of permeable sediments and has been identified as increasingly at risk for developing hypoxia. Therefore, we investigate the benthic O2 exchange across the permeable North Sea sediments using a combination of in situ microprofiles, a benthic chamber, and aquatic eddy correlation. Tidal bottom currents drive the variable sediment O2 penetration depth (from ~3 to 8 mm) and the concurrent turbulence-driven 25-fold variation in the benthic sediment O2 uptake. The O2 flux and variability were reproduced using a simple 1-D model linking the benthic turbulence to the sediment pore water exchange. The high O2 flux variability results from deeper sediment O2 penetration depths and increased O2 storage during high velocities, which is then utilized during low-flow periods. The study reveals that the benthic hydrodynamics, sediment permeability, and pore water redox oscillations are all intimately linked and crucial parameters determining the oxygen availability. These parameters must all be considered when evaluating mineralization pathways of organic matter and nutrients in permeable sediments.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1002/2014JC010303
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 3
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    Discovery of a natural CO2 seep in the German North Sea: implications for shallow dissolved gas and seep detection (2011)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 116 . C03013.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2019-09-23
    Description: A natural carbon dioxide (CO2) seep was discovered during an expedition to the southern German North Sea (October 2008). Elevated CO2 levels of ∼10–20 times above background were detected in seawater above a natural salt dome ∼30 km north of the East-Frisian Island Juist. A single elevated value 53 times higher than background was measured, indicating a possible CO2 point source from the seafloor. Measured pH values of around 6.8 support modeled pH values for the observed high CO2 concentration. These results are presented in the context of CO2 seepage detection, in light of proposed subsurface CO2 sequestering and growing concern of ocean acidification. We explore the boundary conditions of CO2 bubble and plume seepage and potential flux paths to the atmosphere. Shallow bubble release experiments conducted in a lake combined with discrete-bubble modeling suggest that shallow CO2 outgassing will be difficult to detect as bubbles dissolve very rapidly (within meters). Bubble-plume modeling further shows that a CO2 plume will lose buoyancy quickly because of rapid bubble dissolution while the newly CO2-enriched water tends to sink toward the seabed. Results suggest that released CO2 will tend to stay near the bottom in shallow systems (〈200 m) and will vent to the atmosphere only during deep water convection (water column turnover). While isotope signatures point to a biogenic source, the exact origin is inconclusive because of dilution. This site could serve as a natural laboratory to further study the effects of carbon sequestration below the seafloor.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/2010JC006557
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 4
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    Fluid venting in the eastern Aleutian subduction zone (1998)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 103 (B2). pp. 2597-2614.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2018-04-25
    Description: Fluid venting has been observed along 800 km of the Alaska convergent margin. The fluid venting sites are located near the deformation front, are controlled by subsurface structures, and exhibit the characteristics of cold seeps seen in other convergent margins. The more important characteristics include (1) methane plumes in the lower water column with maxima above the seafloor which are traceable to the initial deformation ridges; (2) prolific colonies of vent biota aligned and distributed in patches controlled by fault scarps, over‐steepened folds or outcrops of bedding planes; (3) calcium carbonate and barite precipitates at the surface and subsurface of vents; and (4) carbon isotope evidence from tissue and skeletal hard parts of biota, as well as from carbonate precipitates, that vents expel either methane‐ or sulfide‐dominated fluids. A biogeochemical approach toward estimating fluid flow rates from individual vents based on oxygen flux measurements and vent fluid analysis indicates a mean value of 5.5±0.7 L m−2 d−1 for tectonics‐induced water flow [Wallmann et al., 1997b]. A geophysical estimate of dewatering from the same area [von Huene et al., 1997] based on sediment porosity reduction shows a fluid loss of 0.02 L m−2 d−1 for a 5.5 km wide converged segment near the deformation front. Our video‐guided surveys have documented vent biota across a minimum of 0.1% of the area of the convergent segment off Kodiak Island; hence an average rate of 0.006 L m−2 d−1 is estimated from the biogeochemical approach. The two estimates for tectonics‐induced water flow from the accretionary prism are in surprisingly good agreement.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/97JB02131
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 5
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    Sea Floor Methane Hydrates at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia Margin (2001)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  In: Natural gas hydrates: occurrence, distribution, and detection. , ed. by Paull, C. Geophysical Monograph Series, 124 . AGU (American Geophysical Union), Washington, DC, pp. 87-99.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2017-06-27
    Type: Book chapter , NonPeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/GM124p0087
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    OceanRep: Book chapter
  • 6
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    Efficiency of benthic filter: Biological control of the emission of dissolved methane from sediments containing shallow gas hydrates at Hydrate Ridge (2006)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 20 (GB2019).
    Details
    Publication Date: 2018-03-16
    Description: In marine sedimentary environments, microbial methanotrophy represents an important sink for methane before it leaves the seafloor and enters the water column. Using benthic observatories in conjunction with numerical modeling of pore water gradients, we investigated seabed methane emission rates at cold seep sites with underlying gas hydrates at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin. Measurements were conducted at three characteristic sites which have variable fluid flow and sulfide flux and sustain distinct chemosynthetic communities. In sediments covered with microbial mats of Beggiatoa, seabed methane efflux ranges from 1.9 to 11.5 mmol m−2 d−1. At these sites of relatively high advective flow, total oxygen uptake was very fast, yielding rates of up to 53.4 mmol m−2 d−1. In sediments populated by colonies with clams of the genus Calyptogena and characterized by low advective flow, seabed methane emission was 0.6 mmol m−2 d−1, whereas average total oxygen uptake amounted to only 3.7 mmol m−2 d−1. The efficiency of methane consumption at microbial mat and clam field sites was 66 and 83%, respectively. Our measurements indicate a high potential capacity of aerobic methane oxidation in the benthic boundary layer. This layer potentially restrains seabed methane emission when anaerobic methane oxidation in the sediment becomes saturated or when methane is bypassing the sediment matrix along fractures and channels.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/2004GB002389
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 7
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    Methane sources, distributions, and fluxes from cold vent sites at Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia Margin (2005)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 19 . GB2016.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2018-03-16
    Description: To constrain the fluxes of methane (CH4) in the water column above the accretionary wedge along the Cascadia continental margin, we measured methane and its stable carbon isotope signature (δ13C-CH4). The studies focused on Hydrate Ridge (HR), where venting occurs in the presence of gas-hydrate-bearing sediments. The vent CH4 has a light δ13C-CH4 biogenic signature (−63 to −66‰ PDB) and forms thin zones of elevated methane concentrations several tens of meters above the ocean floor in the overlying water column. These concentrations, ranging up to 4400 nmol L−1, vary by 3 orders of magnitude over periods of only a few hours. The poleward undercurrent of the California Current system rapidly dilutes the vent methane and distributes it widely within the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Above 480 m water depth, the methane budget is dominated by isotopically heavier CH4 from the shelf and upper slope, where mixtures of various local biogenic and thermogenic methane sources were detected (−56 to −28‰ PDB). The distribution of dissolved methane in the working area can be represented by mixtures of methane from the two primary source regions with an isotopically heavy background component (−25 to −6‰ PDB). Methane oxidation rates of 0.09 to 4.1% per day are small in comparison to the timescales of advection. This highly variable physical regime precludes a simple characterization and tracing of “downcurrent” plumes. However, methane inventories and current measurements suggest a methane flux of approximately 3 × 104 mol h−1 for the working area (1230 km2), and this is dominated by the shallower sources. We estimate that the combined vent sites on HR produce 0.6 × 104 mol h−1, and this is primarily released in the gas phase rather than dissolved within fluid seeps. There is no evidence that significant amounts of this methane are released to the atmosphere locally.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/2004GB002266
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
  • 8
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    Atmospheric methane flux from bubbling seeps: Spatially extrapolated quantification from a Black Sea shelf area (2010)
    AGU (American Geophysical Union)
    In:  Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 115 . C01002.
    Details
    Publication Date: 2018-04-25
    Description: Bubble transport of methane from shallow seep sites in the Black Sea west of the Crimea Peninsula between 70 and 112 m water depth has been studied by extrapolation of results gained through different hydroacoustic methods and direct sampling. Ship-based hydroacoustic echo sounders can locate bubble releasing seep sites very precisely and facilitate their correlation with geological or other features at the seafloor. Here, the backscatter strength of a multibeam system was integrated with single-beam data to estimate the amount of seeps/m2 for different backscatter intensities, resulting in 2709 vents in total. Direct flux measurements by submersible revealed methane fluxes from individual vents of 0.32–0.85 l/min or 14.5–37.8 mmol/min at ambient pressure and temperature conditions. A conservative estimate of 30 mmol/min per site was used to estimate the flux into the water to be 1219–1355 mmol/s. The flux to the atmosphere was calculated by applying a bubble dissolution model taking release depth, temperature, gas composition, and bubble size spectra into account. The flux into the atmosphere (3930–4533 mol/d) or into the mixed layer (6186–6899 mol/d) from the 21.8 km2 large study area is three times higher than independently measured fluxes of dissolved methane for the same area using geochemical methods (1030–2495 mol/d). The amount of methane dissolving in the mixed layer is 2256–2366 mol/d. This close match shows that the hydroacoustic approach for extrapolating the number of seeps/m2 and the applied bubble dissolution model are suitable to extrapolate methane fluxes over larger areas.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
    DOI: 10.1029/2009JC005381
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    OceanRep: Article in a Scientific Journal - peer-reviewed
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