Abstract
Many mud volcanoes are distributed along the tectonic sutures in southern Taiwan and can be divided into five zones based on their relative positions in different tectonic domains. Most active mud volcanoes are exhaling methane-dominated gases. Nevertheless, some gases show unusual carbon dioxide-dominated and/or nitrogen-excess compositions. This implies that there are multiple sources for the gas compositions of mud volcanoes in Taiwan.
For better understanding the total amount of exhalation gases and its flux, the gas flow and compositions were continuously measured in the interval of two minutes at Chung-lun (CL) bubbling mud pool for a few months. The major compositions of gases exhaling from this site were 75~90% of CO2 and 5~12% of CH4. The amount of gases exhaling from the mud pool can be estimated to be about 1.4 ton/year for CH4 and 28 ton/year for CO2, respectively. The preliminary results of exhaling gas flux from the major vents of representative active mud volcanoes, yielded an estimated total CH4 output of the mud volcanoes in Taiwan of ca. 29 ton/year during quiescent period.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Ms P.S., Hsieh, Mrs. N.T. Liu, R.H. Tsai, H.H. Ho, J.H. Jiang and B.W. Lin for helping in sample collection and analysis during different periods of this study since 1999. The authors also thank Dr. G. Etiope for efficient handling of the manuscript and much encouragement. Improvements in the manuscript were made by anonymous reviewers. This study was partly financially supported by the National Science Council (NSC90–2116-M-002-031; NSC92–2116-M-002–003-/TFY) and the Central Geological Survey, Taiwan, R.O.C.
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Yang, T.F., Yeh, GH., Fu, CC. et al. Composition and exhalation flux of gases from mud volcanoes in Taiwan. Env Geol 46, 1003–1011 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-1086-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-1086-0