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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: The role of faults in petroleum systems is important especially in cases where the hydrocarbon accumulation in the prospect or field is fault-dependent. Usually, the properties of faults in petroleum systems are considered as static through time. We present a case study from the southern Halten terrace in the Norwegian Sea which highlights not only the importance of faults but also that the evolution of fault properties is key in determining the correct charge in the fields in the region. The best-fit model shows that in order to match observations the petroleum system requires at least two stages of hydrocarbon migration during which fault properties change from partially to completely sealing with respect to hydrocarbon flow across them. The most likely process that results in fault sealing is cementation due to increasing temperatures caused by the rapid burial during the Quaternary glaciations. This results in the most accurate charge of accumulations in the region while also explaining other observations such as present-day pressure compartmentalization and biodegradation. The best-fit model also implements the source rock thermal evolution based on a 2D basin model that improves the match of fluid GOR in the accumulation to the measured values. This study highlights the importance of multi-scale, multi-physics and multi-stage models in order to obtain results consistent with present day observations.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2020-02-06
    Description: The potential of mining seafloor massive sulfide deposits for metals such as Cu, Zn, and Au is currently debated. One key challenge is to predict where the largest deposits worth mining might form, which in turn requires understanding the pattern of subseafloor hydrothermal mass and energy transport. Numerical models of heat and fluid flow are applied to illustrate the important role of fault zone properties (permeability and width) in controlling mass accumulation at hydrothermal vents at slow spreading ridges. We combine modeled mass-flow rates, vent temperatures, and vent field dimensions with the known fluid chemistry at the fault-controlled Logatchev 1 hydrothermal field of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We predict that the 135 kilotons of SMS at this site (estimated by other studies) can have accumulated with a minimum depositional efficiency of 5% in the known duration of hydrothermal venting (58,200 year age of the deposit). In general, the most productive faults must provide an efficient fluid pathway while at the same time limit cooling due to mixing with entrained cold seawater. This balance is best met by faults that are just wide and permeable enough to control a hydrothermal plume rising through the oceanic crust. Model runs with increased basal heat input, mimicking a heat flow contribution from along-axis, lead to higher mass fluxes and vent temperatures, capable of significantly higher SMS accumulation rates. Nonsteady state conditions, such as the influence of a cooling magmatic intrusion beneath the fault zone, also can temporarily increase the mass flux while sustaining high vent temperatures.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2020-06-18
    Description: Paleo-climate records and geodynamic modelling indicate the existence of complex interactions between glacial sea level changes, volcanic degassing and atmospheric CO2, which may have modulated the climate system's descent into the last ice age. Between ∼85 and 70 kyr ago, during an interval of decreasing axial tilt, the orbital component in global temperature records gradually declined, while atmospheric CO2, instead of continuing its long-term correlation with Antarctic temperature, remained relatively stable. Here, based on novel global geodynamic models and the joint interpretation of paleo-proxy data as well as biogeochemical simulations, we show that a sea level fall in this interval caused enhanced pressure-release melting in the uppermost mantle, which may have induced a surge in magma and CO2 fluxes from mid-ocean ridges and oceanic hotspot volcanoes. Our results reveal a hitherto unrecognized negative feedback between glaciation and atmospheric CO2 predominantly controlled by marine volcanism on multi-millennial timescales of ∼5,000-15,000 years.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: Large amounts of methane are stored in continental margins as gas hydrates. They are stable under high pressure and low temperature, but react sensitively to environmental changes. Bottom water temperature and sea level changes were considered as main contributors to gas hydrate dynamics after the last glaciation. However, here we show with numerical simulations that pulses of increased sedimentation dominantly controlled hydrate stability during the end of the last glaciation offshore mid-Norway. Sedimentation pulses triggered widespread gas hydrate dissociation and explains the formation of ubiquitous blowout pipes in water depths of 600 to 800 m. Maximum gas hydrate dissociation correlates spatially and temporally with the formation or reactivation of pockmarks, which is constrained by radiocarbon dating of Isorropodon nyeggaensis bivalve shells. Our results highlight that rapid changes of sedimentation can have a strong impact on gas hydrate systems affecting fluid flow and gas seepage activity, slope stability and the carbon cycle.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed , info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2021-03-19
    Description: There is a strong spatial correlation between submarine slope failures and the occurrence of gas hydrates. This has been attributed to the dynamic nature of gas hydrate systems and the potential reduction of slope stability due to bottom water warming or sea level drop. However, 30 years of research into this process found no solid supporting evidence. Here we present new reflection seismic data from the Arctic Ocean and numerical modelling results supporting a different link between hydrates and slope stability. Hydrates reduce sediment permeability and cause build-up of overpressure at the base of the gas hydrate stability zone. Resulting hydro-fracturing forms pipe structures as pathways for overpressured fluids to migrate upward. Where these pipe structures reach shallow permeable beds, this overpressure transfers laterally and destabilises the slope. This process reconciles the spatial correlation of submarine landslides and gas hydrate, and it is independent of environmental change and water depth.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 6
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    Nature Research
    In:  Scientific Reports, 8 . Art.Nr. 9985.
    Publication Date: 2021-03-19
    Description: The division of the earth’s surface into continents and oceans is a consequence of plate tectonics but a geological paradox exists at continent-ocean boundaries. Continental plate is thicker and lighter than oceanic plate, floating higher on the mantle asthenosphere, but it can rift apart by thinning and heating to form new oceans. In theory, continental plate subsides in proportion to the amount it is thinned and subsequently by the rate it cools down. However, seismic and borehole data from continental margins like the Atlantic show that the upper surface of many plates remains close to sea-level during rifting, inconsistent with its thickness, and subsides after breakup more rapidly than cooling predicts. Here we use numerical models to investigate the origin and nature of this puzzling behaviour with data from the Kwanza Basin, offshore Angola. We explore an idea where the continental plate is made increasingly buoyant during rifting by melt produced and trapped in the asthenosphere. Using finite element simulation, we demonstrate that partially molten asthenosphere combined with other mantle processes can counteract the subsidence effect of thinning plate, keeping it elevated by 2-3 km until breakup. Rapid subsidence occurs after breakup when melt is lost to the embryonic ocean ridge.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 7
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (13). 6726-6734 .
    Publication Date: 2020-02-06
    Description: Previous studies have estimated that mantle serpentinization reactions generate H2 at a rate of 1010–1012 mol/yr along the global mid-ocean ridge (MOR) system. Here we present results of 3-D geodynamic simulations that predict rates of additional mantle serpentinization and H2 production at oceanic transform faults (OTF). We find that the extent and rate of mantle serpentinization increases with OTF length and is maximum at intermediate slip rates of 5 to 10 cm/yr. The additional global OTF-related production of H2 is found to be between 6.1 and 10.7 × 1011 mol/yr, which is comparable to the predicted background MOR rate of 4.1–15.0 × 1011 mol H2/yr. This points to oceanic transform faults as potential sites of intense fluid-rock interaction, where chemosynthetic life could be sustained by serpentinization reactions.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 8
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: Numerical models of magmatic hydrothermal systems have become powerful tools for linking surface and seafloor observations to chemical and fluid-dynamic processes at depth. This task requires resolving multi-phase flow over large distances of several kilometers, a wide range of pressure (p) and temperature (T) conditions, and over timescales of several thousands of years. The key numerical challenge is that realistic simulations have to consider the high nonlinearity and strong coupling of the governing conservation equations for mass and energy, while also being numerically efficient so that the required spatial and temporal scales can be resolved. Here we outline possible solutions to this problem by evaluating different implementation strategies and presenting a numerical scheme for fully coupled accurate and efficient flow solutions. The general scheme, based on the Newton–Raphson (NR) method, is presented for the simplified case of 2-D pure water convection and uses a control volume discretization on unstructured meshes. We find that the presented techniques significantly reduce the computational effort with respect to sequential/decoupled schemes. Key to this is a theta-time-differencing method for better accuracy, stability and convergence behavior of the NR-iterations, as well as improvements regarding upwinding. These features make the presented methods useful for coupled simulations of magmatic hydrothermal systems and a potential basis for future 3-D multi-phase codes.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2021-02-08
    Description: We reanalyze existing paleodata of global mean surface temperature ΔTg and radiative forcing ΔR of CO2 and land ice albedo for the last 800,000 years to show that a state‐dependency in paleoclimate sensitivity S, as previously suggested, is only found if ΔTg is based on reconstructions, and not when ΔTg is based on model simulations. Furthermore, during times of decreasing obliquity (periods of land‐ice sheet growth and sea level fall) the multi‐millennial component of reconstructed ΔTg diverges from CO2, while in simulations both variables vary more synchronously, suggesting that the differences during these times are due to relatively low rates of simulated land ice growth and associated cooling. To produce a reconstruction‐based extrapolation of S for the future we exclude intervals with strong ΔTg‐CO2 divergence and find that S is less state‐dependent, or even constant (state‐independent), yielding a mean equilibrium warming of 2–4 K for a doubling of CO2.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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  • 10
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    AGU (American Geophysical Union) | Wiley
    In:  Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14 (12). pp. 5244-5262.
    Publication Date: 2018-02-28
    Description: Large volumes of magma emplaced within sedimentary basins have been linked to multiple climate change events due to release of greenhouse gases such as CH4. Basin-scale estimates of thermogenic methane generation show that this process alone could generate enough greenhouse gases to trigger global incidents. However, the rates at which these gases are transported and released into the atmosphere are quantitatively unknown. We use a 2D, hybrid FEM/FVM model that solves for fully compressible fluid flow to quantify the thermogenic release and transport of methane and to evaluate flow patterns within these systems. Our results show that the methane generation potential in systems with fluid flow does not significantly differ from that estimated in diffusive systems. The values diverge when vigorous convection occurs with a maximum variation of about 50%. The fluid migration pattern around a cooling, impermeable sill alone generates hydrothermal plumes without the need for other processes such as boiling and/or explosive degassing. These fluid pathways are rooted at the edges of the outer sills consistent with seismic imaging. Methane venting at the surface occurs in three distinct stages and can last for hundreds of thousands of years. Our simulations suggest that although the quantity of methane potentially generated within the contact aureole can cause catastrophic climate change, the rate at which this methane is released into the atmosphere is too slow to trigger, by itself, some of the negative δ13C excursions observed in the fossil record over short time scales (〈 10,000 years).
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
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