Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 9 April 1993:
Vol. 260. no. 5105, pp. 204 - 207
DOI: 10.1126/science.260.5105.204
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Velocity Structure of a Gas Hydrate Reflector

Satish C. Singh 1, Timothy A. Minshull 2, and George D. Spence 3

1 British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate, Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0EZ, United Kingdom
2 Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0EZ, United Kingdom
3 School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2YZ, Canada

Seismic reflection profiles across many continental margins have imaged bottom-simulating reflectors (BSRs) parallel to the seabed; these are often interpreted as the base of a zone in which methane hydrate "ice" is stable. Waveform inversion of seismic reflection data can be used to estimate from seismic data worldwide the velocity structure of a BSR and its thickness. A test of this method at a drill site of the Ocean Drilling Program predicts that sediment pores beneath the BSR contain free methane for approximately 30 meters. The hydrate and underlying gas represent a large global reservoir of methane, which may have economic importance and may influence global climate.

Submitted on November 30, 1992
Accepted on February 2, 1993


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The pore-scale distribution of sediment-hosted hydrates: evidence from effective medium modelling of laboratory and borehole seismic data.
T. A. Minshull and S. Chand (2009)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 319, 93-101
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mass wasting, methane venting, and biological communities on the Mendocino transform fault.
D. S. Stakes, A. M. Trehu, S. K. Goffredi, T. H. Naehr, and R. A. Duncan (2002)
Geology 30, 407-410
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tomographic seismic studies of the methane hydrate stability zone in the Cascadia Margin.
J. W. Hobro, T. A. Minshull, and S. C. Singh (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 137, 133-140
   Abstract »    PDF »
Geochemistry of gas hydrates and associated fluids in the sediments of a passive continental margin. Preliminary results of the ODP Leg 164 on the Blake Outer Ridge.
R. Thiery, R. Bakker, and C. Monnin (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 137, 161-165
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)