Glaciated Continental Margins

Glaciated Continental Margins PDF

Author: Thomas A. Davies

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 9401158207

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Late Cenozoic glaciation directly affected sedimentation on more than half the Earth's continental shelves. Ice continues to be a dominant influence on sedimentation around Greenland and Antarctica, and on the shelves facing the Arctic Ocean. The features of these shelves include true glacimarine features, i.e. those found in a marine environment in proximityto, or strongly under the influence of, ice, such as iceberg scours and pits, ice gouges and incisions, subglacial outwash deposits, and diamictons resulting from ice rafting. Also seen, because large areas of the shelves were exposed during the Pleistocene lowering of sea level, are terrestrial glacial and periglacial features, e.g. fluvial outwash valleys and associated deposits, tunnel valleys, drumlin fields and lodgement till, which have subsequently been submerged and modified by marine influences. Glaciated Continental Margins: An Atlas of Acoustic Images illustrates the complexity of features found in glaciated and formerly glaciated marine environments. The volume was assembled by an international Editorial Committee, led by Thomas A. Davies (University of Texas), from records gathered in the course of recent research and contributed by members of the scientific community from around the world. These include seismic sections, side-scan maps, and 3-D seismic data, supplemented in some cases by bottom photographs and core data, with accompanying text. The work is scientists at 40 institutions in 10 countries is represented. This book will be an invaluable resource for students, Quaternary scientists, glaciologists, marine geologists and geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, and surveyors teachers working in universities, research institutions and government agencies with interests in polar and subpolar regions, as well as those in industries with offshore interests.

World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins

World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins PDF

Author: Jürgen Mienert

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-01

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 3030811867

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This world atlas presents a comprehensive overview of the gas-hydrate systems of our planet with contributions from esteemed international researchers from academia, governmental institutions and hydrocarbon industries. The book illustrates, describes and discusses gas hydrate systems, their geophysical evidence and their future prospects for climate change and continental margin geohazards from passive to active margins. This includes passive volcanic to non-volcanic margins including glaciated and non-glaciated margins from high to low latitudes. Shallow submarine gas hydrates allow a glimpse into the past from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to modern environmental conditions to predict potential changes in future stability conditions while deep submarine gas hydrates remained more stable. This demonstrates their potential for rapid reactions for some gas hydrate provinces to a warming world, as well as helping to identify future prospects for environmental research. Three-dimensional and high-resolution seismic imaging technologies provide new insights into fluid flow systems in continental margins, enabling the identification of gas and gas escape routes to the seabed within gas hydrate environments, where seabed habitats may flourish. The volume contains a method section detailing the seismic imaging and logging while drilling techniques used to characterize gas hydrates and related dynamic processes in the sub seabed. This book is unique, as it goes well beyond the geophysical monograph series of natural gas hydrates and textbooks on marine geophysics. It also emphasizes the potential for gas hydrate research across a variety of disciplines. Observations of bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) in 2D and 3D seismic reflection data combined with velocity analysis, electromagnetic investigations and gas-hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) modelling, provide the necessary insights for academic interests and hydrocarbon industries to understand the potential extent and volume of gas hydrates in a wide range of tectonic settings of continental margins. Gas hydrates control the largest and most dynamic reservoir of global carbon. Especially 4D, 3D seismic but also 2D seismic data provide compelling sub-seabed images of their dynamical behavior. Sub-seabed imaging techniques increase our understanding of the controlling mechanisms for the distribution and migration of gas before it enters the gas-hydrate stability zone. As methane hydrate stability depends mainly on pressure, temperature, gas composition and pore water chemistry, gas hydrates are usually found in ocean margin settings where water depth is more than 300 m and gas migrates upward from deeper geological formations. This highly dynamic environment may precondition the stability of continental slopes as evidenced by geohazards and gas expelled from the sea floor. This book provides new insights into variations in the character and existence of gas hydrates and BSRs in various geological environments, as well as their dynamics. The potentially dynamic behavior of this natural carbon system in a warming world, its current and future impacts on a variety of Earth environments can now be adequately evaluated by using the information provided in the world atlas. This book is relevant for students, researchers, governmental agencies and oil and gas professionals. Some familiarity with seismic data and some basic understanding of geology and tectonics are recommended.