A kinetic model for the pattern and amounts of hydrate precipitated from a gas steam: Application to the Bush Hill vent site, Green Canyon Block 185, Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

We construct a linear kinetic model of hydrate crystallization from a gas stream. We use this model to predict the fraction of gas that crystallizes as hydrate in the subsurface of Bush Hill, and the depth profile of subsurface hydrate accumulation. This is possible because the Bush Hill vent is fed by reservoir gas from the nearby Jolliet field whose composition is known. On the average, ∼9% of the vent gas is precipitated as hydrate in the subsurface. Although other explanations are possible, the observed vent gas compositions and the greater range of hydrate gas compositions are consistent with a single source gas whose venting rate varies by a factor of at least 3 over periods of a few years or less. The predicted depth profile of hydrate accumulation and the hydrate content of the Bush Hill mound suggest that between ∼1.1 × 109 and 2.8 × 109 m3 (STP) of gas may have accumulated as hydrate between the seafloor and ∼614‐m depth. For the radiometrically and geologically suggested system age of 10,000 years, the time average venting rate is ∼106 m3/yr (0.7 × 106 kg/yr). If distributed evenly across the 600 m diameter mound, as suggested by echo sounder images, the methane flux is >3.2 kg/m2 yr. This is >103 times that inferred for hydrates associated with bottom‐simulating seismic reflectors. The subsurface hydrate accumulation and the cumulative methane venting are related. We show how both may be estimated from measurements of vent gas composition, bottom water temperature, and geothermal gradient.