Distribution of the gas hydrate stability zone in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

Michela Giustiniani,Umberta Tinivella,Chiara Sauli,Bruno Della Vedova

doi:10.5027/andgeov45n1-2989

Michela Giustiniani, Umberta Tinivella + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.5027/andgeov45n1-2989

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Abstract

The theoretical gas hydrates stability zone (GHSZ) in the Ross Sea area was evaluated by mean of a steady state simple approach by using bathymetric data, sea bottom temperature, a variable geothermal gradient and assuming that the natural gas is methane. The results from our study suggest that bathymetry and distribution of the GHSZ are correlated; in fact, the GHSZ reaches a maximum (ca. 400 m) in the basins, where the water temperature is the lowest, and decreases in the banks with thickness ranging between 7 and

Highlights

In the past two decades the Ross Sea Embayment area has been considered a laboratory of growing interest for the reconstruction of the past Antarctic environment, the onset of Antarctic Eocene-Paleocene glaciation, climates studies, the understanding of the tectonic deformation and global sea level changes that all have driven glacial history.The broad over-deepened and landward sloping Ross Sea outer continental shelf occupies a 1,000 km wide embayment on the present Antarctic margin
The results from our study suggest that bathymetry and distribution of the gas hydrates stability zone (GHSZ) are correlated; the GHSZ reaches a maximum in the basins, where the water temperature is the lowest, and decreases in the banks with thickness ranging between 7 and
The existence and dynamics of the gas hydrate distribution is strictly related to the existence and evolution of the shallow geological and geomorphological features below the sea floor, as suggested in the past by several authors

Summary

Introduction

In the past two decades the Ross Sea Embayment area has been considered a laboratory of growing interest for the reconstruction of the past Antarctic environment, the onset of Antarctic Eocene-Paleocene glaciation, climates studies, the understanding of the tectonic deformation and global sea level changes that all have driven glacial history.The broad over-deepened and landward sloping Ross Sea outer continental shelf occupies a 1,000 km wide embayment on the present Antarctic margin. The main Ross Sea elongated N-S sedimentary troughs, such as the Victoria Land Basin, the Drigalsky Basin, the northern continuation of the Northern Basin, the Central Basin, the Joides Basin and the Eastern Basin (Fig.1) are bounded by basement highs and morphological banks They were formed during the late Cretaceous major rifting phase and later during the Cenozoic (Cooper et al, 1987; Davey and Brancolini, 1995; Salvini et al, 1997; Trey et al, 1999; Fielding et al, 2006; Henrys et al, 2007; Davey and De Santis, 2006; Davey et al, 2006; Cande and Stock, 2006), while a widespread igneous activity affected the West Antarctic Rift System (LeMasurier, 1990)

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