Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Rensbergen, P. Articles by Krinitsky, P. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Sublacustrine mud volcanoes and methane seeps caused by dissociation of gas hydrates in Lake Baikal

¹ Renard Centre of Marine Geology, University of Ghent, Krijgslaan 281-S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
² Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium
³ Renard Centre of Marine Geology, University of Ghent, Krijgslaan 281-S8, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
⁴ Limnological Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
⁵ All Russian Institute for Geology and Mineral Resources of the World Ocean, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Four lake-floor seeps have been studied in the gas-hydrate area in Lake Baikal's South Basin by using side-scan sonar, detailed bathymetry, measurements of near-bottom water properties, heat-flow measurements, and selected seismic profiles in relation to results from geochemical pore-water analysis. The seeps at the lake floor are identified as methane seeps and occur in an area of high heat flow, where the base of the gas-hydrate layer shallows rapidly toward the vent sites from 400 m to 150 m below the lake floor. At the site of the seep, a vertical fluid conduit disrupts the sedimentary stratification from the base of the hydrate layer to the lake floor. The seeps are interpreted to result from local destabilization of gas-hydrate caused by a pulse of hydrothermal fluid flow along an active fault segment. This is the first time that methane seeps and/or mud volcanoes associated with gas-hydrate destabilization have been observed in a sublacustrine setting. The finding demonstrates the potential of tectonically controlled gas-hydrate destabilization to cause extreme pore-fluid overpressure and short-lived mud volcanism.

Key Words: gas hydrates • hydrothermal vents • Lake Baikal • methane • mud volcanoes • seepage

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Douglas. A. Paton, R. di Primio, G. Kuhlmann, D. van der Spuy, and B. Horsfield Insights into the Petroleum System Evolution of the southern Orange Basin, South Africa South African Journal of Geology, September 1, 2007; 110(2-3): 261 - 274. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Fichler, S. Henriksen, H. Rueslaatten, and M. Hovland North Sea Quaternary morphology from seismic and magnetic data: indications for gas hydrates during glaciation? Petroleum Geoscience, October 1, 2005; 11(4): 331 - 337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Van Rensbergen, J. Poort, R. Kipfer, M. de Batist, M. Vanneste, J. Klerkx, N. Granin, O. Khlystov, and P. Krinitsky Near-surface sediment mobilization and methane venting in relation to hydrate destabilization in Southern Lake Baikal, Siberia Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2003; 216(1): 207 - 221. [Abstract] [PDF]