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.

Science 27 January 1989:
Vol. 243. no. 4890, pp. 517 - 519
DOI: 10.1126/science.243.4890.517
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Evidence for Sediment Eruption on Deep Sea Floor, Gulf of Mexico

DAVID B. PRIOR 1, EARL H. DOYLE 2, and MICHAEL J. KALUZA 3

1 Coastal Studies Institute and Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803.
2 Shell Oil Company, Post Office Box 2099, Houston, TX 77001.
3 Fugro-McClelland, Inc., Post Office Box 740010, Houston, TX 77274.

A large crater has been discovered on the sea floor, Gulf of Mexico, in a water depth of 2176 meters. Deep-tow high-resolution imagery shows that the crater is cut into a low hill surrounded by near-surface concentric faults. Approximately 2 million cubic meters of ejected sediment forms a peripheral debris field. The low hill and faults may be related to mud diapirism or intrusion of gas hydrates into near-surface sediments. A recent eruption evacuated sediments from the crater, apparently because of release of overpressured petrogenic gas.

Submitted on September 2, 1988
Accepted on November 28, 1988


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The structure and formation of mud volcano summit calderas.
R. J. EVANS, S. A. STEWART, and R. J. DAVIES (2008)
Journal of the Geological Society 165, 769-780
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comment: COMMENT.
M.D. Max and W.P. Dillon (2002)
Geology 30, 762-763
   Full Text »    PDF »
Possible hydrate mounds within large sea-floor craters in the Barents Sea.
D. Long, S. Lammers, and P. Linke (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 137, 223-237
   Abstract »    PDF »
Chemosynthetic Mussels at a Brine-Filled Pockmark in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.
I. R. MacDonald, J. F. Reilly II, N. L. Guinasso Jr., J. M. Brooks, R. S. Carney, W. A. Bryant, and T. J. Bright (1990)
Science 248, 1096-1099
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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