A review of the gas hydrate distribution offshore Chilean margin

Ivan Vargas-Cordero De La Cruz,Michela Giustiniani,Umberta Tinivella,Giulia Alessandrini,V Bondarenko,R Lysenko,M Hardygora,F Cawood,K Sai,I Kovalevska

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202123001007

Ivan Vargas-Cordero De La Cruz, Michela Giustiniani + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123001007

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Abstract

In last decades, the Chilean margin has been extensively investigated to better characterize the complex geological setting through the acquisition of geophysical data and, in particular, seismic lines. The analysis of seismic lines allowed identifying the occurrence of gas hydrates and free gas in many places along the margin. Clearly, the gas hydrate reservoir could be a strategic energy reserve for Chile, but, on the other hand, the dissociated of gas hydrate due to climate change could be an issue to face. Moreover, this region is characterized by large and mega-scale earthquakes that may contribute to gas hydrate dissociation and consequent submarine slides triggering. In this context, Chilean margin should be considered a natural laboratory to study the hydrate system evolution.

Highlights

In last decades, the Chilean margin has been extensively investigated to better characterize the complex geological setting through the acquisition of geophysical data and, in particular, seismic lines
The analysis of seismic lines allowed identifying the occurrence of gas hydrates in many places along the Chilean margin [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
The seismic lines presented in this work (Table 1) were acquired in the frame of following researcher projects: 1) SO161 profiles acquired by the RV SONNE cruise in 2001 in the frame of “Subduction Processes off Chile (SPOC)” project; 2) RC2901 profiles acquired by the RV CONRAD cruise in 1988 in the frame of the project “Mid-Ocean Spreading Ridge” of the ODP Program

Summary

Introduction

The Chilean margin has been extensively investigated to better characterize the complex geological setting through the acquisition of geophysical data and, in particular, seismic lines. The analysis of seismic lines allowed identifying the occurrence of gas hydrates in many places along the Chilean margin [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] Their occurrence has been confirmed by the presence of cold seeps emitting methane at the seafloor (e.g., [18,19,20,21,22,23]). Along this margin, the gas hydrate reservoir was perforated for the first time with the ODP Leg 141, located near the Chilean triple junction The convergence rate is about 8 cm/y [30,31,32,33,34,35,36], decreasing toward south, until it reaches a minimum rate of 2 cm/y south to the Fuegian Triple Junction [11, 15, 33]

Data and methods

The BSR

Findings

Conclusions