Other Types of Degassing in the Black Sea

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of other types of degassing in the Black Sea. In addition to mud volcanoes, there are numerous areas where gas bubbles escape from the Black Sea floor; these are called gas seeps, acoustic (i.e., obtained using echo sounders or sonars and visible on echograms) plumes, gas torches (due to their cone-like shape on eco sounder images), or gas flares; these are all referred to in the chapter as gas seeps. They are localized on the periphery of the Black Sea, particularly in its northwestern part, on the Bulgarian and Kerch-Taman shelf (including the Kerch Strait), and along the coast of the Caucasus. Quite often, they are confined to paleo-deltas of the largest Black Sea rivers, the Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and Don, and within the canyons formed by them. The deepest seeps are associated with faults and mud volcanoes in the central Black Sea basin.