Physical Properties and Gas Hydrate at a Near-Seafloor Thrust Fault, Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

Cook, Ann E.; Paganoni, Matteo; Clennell, Michael Benedict; McNamara, David D.; Nole, Michael; Wang, Xiujuan; Han, Shuoshuo; Bell, Rebecca E.; Solomon, Evan A.; Saffer, Demian M.; Barnes, Philip M.; Pecher, Ingo A.; Wallace, Laura M.; LeVay, Leah J.; Petronotis, Katerina E.

doi:10.1029/2020gl088474

Physical Properties and Gas Hydrate at a Near-Seafloor Thrust Fault, Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

Journal Article · Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl088474· OSTI ID:1650156

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[7]; Bell, Rebecca E. ^[8]; Solomon, Evan A. ^[9]; Saffer, Demian M. ^[7]; Barnes, Philip M. ^[10]; ^[11]; ^[12]; ^[13]; ^[13]

The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Kensington WA (Australia)
Univ. of Liverpool (United Kingdom)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Qingdao (China)
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington (New Zealand)
School of Environmental and Marine SciencesUniversity of Auckland Auckland New Zealand
GNS Science Lower Hutt New Zealand
Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)

The Papaku Fault Zone, drilled at International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1518, is an active splay fault in the frontal accretionary wedge of the Hikurangi Margin. In logging-while-drilling data, the 33-m-thick fault zone exhibits mixed modes of deformation associated with a trend of downward decreasing density, P-wave velocity, and resistivity. Methane hydrate is observed from ~30 to 585 m below seafloor (mbsf), including within and surrounding the fault zone. Hydrate accumulations are vertically discontinuous and occur throughout the entire logged section at low to moderate saturation in silty and sandy centimeter-thick layers. In this paper, we argue that the hydrate distribution implies that the methane is not sourced from fluid flow along the fault but instead by local diffusion. This, combined with geophysical observations and geochemical measurements from Site U1518, suggests that the fault is not a focused migration pathway for deeply sourced fluids and that the near-seafloor Papaku Fault Zone has little to no active fluid flow.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF); North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); New Zealand Endeavour Fund

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1650156

Report Number(s):: SAND--2020-8182J; 689805

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 47; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Physical Properties and Gas Hydrate at a Near-Seafloor Thrust Fault, Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

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