| Methane hydrate, an ice-like substance that consists of methane and water, forms at high pressures and low temperatures, and abounds below every continental margin on earth. The amount of carbon trapped in methane hydrate remains highly speculative: although Kvenvolden (1993) suggests two-thirds of all the carbon on earth may be trapped in methane hydrate, more recent estimates by Milkov et. al. (2003) conclude that hydrates make up perhaps only one-forth of the global carbon reservoir. Regardless of which is more accurate, both estimates suggest methane hydrate is the largest source of carbon on the planet, and because of this, methane hydrate reservoirs may be a future potential energy resource as well as a significant cause of past and future global warming, since methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Recent studies by Kennett et al. (2000) and Dickens et. al. (2003) suggest that methane release from methane hydrate dissociation can explain past global warming events. Nonetheless, such conclusion are only valid if (1) the statistical estimates of hydrate quantities are accurate, and (2) a well understood mechanism for hydrate dissociation and methane gas release is recognized. The goal of this work, therefore, is to create high-resolution 3D seismic images to quantify the amount of hydrate that exists in a known hydrate province, the Blake Ridge, and to determine how fluid migration, hydrate dissociation and gas escape may occur in the region. My results demonstrate that concentrated zones of methane hydrate can be directly detected within the 3D image, and that approximately two-thirds of all methane trapped below the Blake Ridge is located in concentrated zones of hydrate and free-gas. The images reveal that strata and sequence boundaries act as gas traps. Furthermore, critically thick free-gas zones exist below much of the Blake Ridge, and any changes in pressure or temperature in the region could result in significant gas escape. The analysis reveals that currently little fluid flow exists below the Blake Ridge, however fluid flow recently (within the last 3 my) occurred below the Blake Ridge Depression, and future fluid flow and gas escape in the region remains likely. |
