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Geology; October 2000; v. 28; no. 10; p. 907-910; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(2000)28<907:PODFAM>2.0.CO;2
© 2000 Geological Society of America
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Pulsed oil discharge from a mud volcano

Ian R. MacDonald1, David B. Buthman2, William W. Sager3, Michael B. Peccini1 and Norman L. Guinasso, Jr1

1 Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
2 Unocal Corp., 909 West 9th Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska 99519, USA
3 Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA

In this paper we document instances where change in the magnitude of natural oil seepage coincided with fluctuations of fluid temperature in a seafloor mud volcano. Oil slicks were detected floating near commercial oil fields in the northern Gulf of Mexico in a time series of six satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images collected over a 10 month interval. The oil escaped naturally from a complex of fluid expulsion features at seafloor depths of about 600 m. One of these features was a 50-m-wide, mud- and brine-filled crater. Temperature in the crater fluctuated rapidly during an interval of ~1 yr (minimum 6.1 °C, maximum 48.3 °C, mean 26.1 °C, standard deviation 9.07). The areas of the oil slicks in the SAR images fluctuated repeatedly between <10 and >1000 ha. The largest oil slicks detected by SAR occurred along with the fastest increase in fluid temperature.

Key Words: hydrocarbon seep • eruption • fluid migration • diatreme • Gulf of Mexico




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