Abstract
Methane seeps have been shown to be a powerful agent in modifying seabed morphology, amongst others by cementation processes such as the formation of methane-derived authigenic carbonates (MDACs). The cements stabilise mobile sediment particles and thereby promote the formation of edifices such as mounds on various scales. The release of methane from shallow subsurface sources, when concentrated in seeps, has proven hazardous to offshore construction activities. In this paper, methane cycling and MDAC precipitation is explored as a potential “finger on the pulse” for the recognition of shallow gas pockets and active gas seepage. This would provide a valuable planning tool for seabed engineering developments in areas of potential gas seepage. Measurements of methane concentrations in the Irish Sea are correlated with a unique record of longer-term morphological evolution (up to 11 years) of MDAC structures and subsurface geological settings which would favour the build-up of shallow gas. It was found that gas seepage activity associated with fault zones correlates with carbonate mound steepness. Cessation of gas seepage results in a relatively slow process of erosion and burial of the mounds, eventually producing a subdued carbonate mound morphology after several decades. The Quaternary glacial legacy equally seems to define the distribution and geometry of the MDAC structures. In this case, methane gas locally concentrated in sands and gravels capped by clayey glacial sediments may percolate upwards to the seafloor. A link between methane seeps and the formation of unusually large, trochoidally shaped sediment waves observed on continental shelves worldwide is deemed unlikely. However, the observations suggest that gas percolating through sediment waves may be capped by muddy sediments which have deposited on the sediment waves due to anoxic conditions or eroded from a neighbouring cliff. Other sediment waves in the Irish Sea were found to have a step-like morphology similar to that documented in the neighbouring MDAC cemented seafloor. These processes may influence sediment waves dynamics and warrant further investigation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson AL, Hampton LD (1980a) Acoustics of gas‐bearing sediments. I. Background. J Acoust Soc Am 67:1890–1891
Anderson AL, Hampton LD (1980b) Acoustics of gas‐bearing sediments. II. Measurements and models. J Acoust Soc Am 67:1892–1903
Baltzer A, Ehrhold A, Rigolet C, Souron A, Cordier C, Clouet H, Dubois SF (2014) Geophysical exploration of an active pockmark field in the Bay of Concarneau, southern Brittany, and implications for resident suspension feeders. Geo-Mar Lett 34:215–230
Bange HW, Bartell UH, Rapsomanikis S, Andreae MO (1994) Methane in the Baltic and North Seas and a reassessment of the marine emissions of methane. Global Biogeochem Cycles 8:465–480
Berndt C, Feseker T, Treude T, Krastel S, Liebetrau V, Niemann H, Bertics VJ, Dumke I, Dünnbier K, Ferré B, Graves C, Gross F, Hissmann K, Hühnerbach V, Krause S, Lieser K, Schauer J, Steinle L (2014) Temporal constraints on hydrate-controlled methane seepage off Svalbard. Science 343:284–287
Blees J, Niemann JH, Wenk CB, Zopfi J, Schubert CJ, Kirf M, Veronesi ML, Hitz C, Lehmann MF (2014) Micro-aerobic bacterial methane oxidation in the chemocline and anoxic water column of deep south-Alpine Lake Lugano (Switzerland). Limnol Oceanogr 59:311–324
Boetius A, Wenzhöfer F (2013) Seafloor oxygen consumption fuelled by methane from cold seeps. Nature Geosci 6:725–734
Boetius A, Ravenschlag K, Schubert CJ, Rickert D, Widdel F, Gieseke A, Amann R, Jørgensen BB, Witte U, Pfannkuche O (2000) A marine microbial consortium apparently mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane. Nature 407:623–626
Chivers A (2013) Dogger Bank Creyke Beck Health and Safety Statement. Document no. F-HSC-RP-001 prepared for Forewind by PMSS Consultancy Services
Cope JCW (1997) The Mesozoic and Tertiary history of the Irish Sea. Geol Soc Lond Spec Publ 124:47–59
Croker PF (1994) Shallow gas in the Irish Sea and associated seafloor morphology. In: NIOZ, 3rd Int Conf Gas in Marine Sediments, Texel, The Netherlands, 25–28 September 1994
Croker PF (1995) Shallow gas accumulation and migration in the western Irish Sea. Geol Soc Lond Spec Publ 93:41–58
Croker PF, Garcia-Gil S, Monteys X (2002) A multibeam survey of the Codling Fault Zone, Western Irish Sea. In: Abstract Vol 33 7th Int Conf Gas in Marine Sediments, Baku, 7–12 October 2002. Nafta Press, Baku, p 29 (poster)
Croker PF, Kozachenko M, Wheeler AJ (2005) Gas-related seabed structures in the Western Irish Sea (IRL-SEA6). Technical report produced for Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Irish Sea (SEA6), UK Department of Trade and Industry, London
Crutchley GJ, Pecher IA, Gorman AR, Henrys SA, Greinert J (2010) Seismic imaging of gas conduits beneath seafloor seep sites in a shallow marine gas hydrate province, Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand. Mar Geol 272:114–126
Cunningham MJM, Phillips AWE, Densmore AL (2004) Evidence for Cenozoic tectonic deformation in SE Ireland and near offshore. Tectonics 23, TC6002. doi:10.1029/2003TC001597
Dumke I, Klaucke I, Berndt C, Bialas J (2014) Sidescan backscatter variations of cold seeps on the Hikurangi Margin (New Zealand): indications for different stages in seep development. Geo-Mar Lett 34:169–184
Dunford GM, Dancer PN, Long KD (2001) Hydrocarbon potential of the Kish Bank Basin: integration within a regional model for the Greater Irish Sea Basin. In: Shannon PM, Haughton PDW, Corcoran DV (eds) The petroleum exploration of Ireland’s offshore basins. Geol Soc Lond Spec Publ 188:135–154
Flemming BW (1988) Zur Klassifikation subaquatischer, strömungstransversaler Transportkörper. Boch geol & geotech Arb 29:44–47
Foubert A, Depreiter D, Beck T, Maignien L, Pannemans B, Frank N, Blamart D, Henriet JP (2008) Carbonate mounds in a mud volcano province off northwest Morocco: key to processes and controls. Mar Geol 248:74–96
Gentz T, Damm E, Schneider von Deimling J, Mau S, McGinnis DF, Schlüter M (2014) A water column study of methane around gas flares located at the West Spitsbergen continental margin. Cont Shelf Res 72:107–118
Hovland M (1993) Submarine gas seepage in the North Sea and adjacent areas. In: Parker JR (ed) Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe, Proc 4th Conf, 29 March–1 April 1992, London, pp 1333–1338
Howarth MJ (2005) Hydrography of the Irish Sea. UK Department of Trade and Industry offshore energy Strategic Assessment programme, London, SEA6 Tech Rep
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. In: Pachauri RK, Reisinger A (eds) Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland
IPCC (2013) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. In: Stocker TF, Qin D, Plattner G-K, Tignor M, Allen SK, Boschung J, Nauels A, Xia Y, Bex V, Midgley PM (eds) Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jackson DI, Jackson AA, Evans DJA, Wingfield RTR, Barnes RP, Arthur MJ (1995) United Kingdom offshore regional report: the geology of the Irish Sea. BGS UK Offshore Regional Rep, HMSO, London
Jones AT, Kennard JM, Logan GA, Grosjean E, Marshall J (2009) Fluid expulsion features associated with sand waves on Australia’s central North West Shelf. Geo-Mar Lett 29:233–248
JNCC (2012) Croker Carbonate Slabs Draft Conservation Objectives and Advice on Operations 5.0. http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/CrokerSlabs_ConservationObjectives_AdviceonOperations_V5.0%20final.pdf
Judd AG (2005) The distribution and extent of methane-derived authigenic carbonate. Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Irish Sea (SEA6). UK Department of Trade and Industry, Tech Rep, London
Judd AG, Hovland M (1992) The evidence of shallow gas in marine sediments. Cont Shelf Res 12:1081–1096
Judd A, Davies G, Wilson J, Holmes R, Baron G, Bryden I (1997) Contributions to atmospheric methane by natural seepages on the UK continental shelf. Mar Geol 137:165–189
Judd A, Croker P, Tizzard L, Voisey C (2007) Extensive methane-derived authigenic carbonates in the Irish Sea. Geo-Mar Lett 27:259–267
Kinnaman FS, Kimball JB, Busso L, Birgel D, Ding H, Hinrichs K-U, Valentine DL (2010) Gas flux and carbonate occurrence at a shallow seep of thermogenic natural gas. Geo-Mar Lett 30:355–365
Klaucke I, Weinrebe W, Linke P, Kläschen D, Bialas J (2012) Sidescan sonar imagery of widespread fossil and active cold seeps along the central Chilean continental margin. Geo-Mar Lett 32:489–499
Leighton TG, White PR (2012) Quantification of undersea gas leaks from carbon capture and storage facilities, from pipelines and from methane seeps, by their acoustic emissions. Proc Roy Soc Lond A 468:485–510
Luff R, Wallmann K, Aloisi G (2004) Numerical modeling of carbonate crust formation at cold vent sites: significance for fluid and methane budgets and chemosynthetic biological communities. Earth Planet Sci Lett 221:337–353
Lyons AP, Duncan ME, Anderson AL, Hawkins JA (1996) Predictions of the acoustic scattering response of free‐methane bubbles in muddy sediments. J Acoust Soc Am 99:163–172
Magalhães VH, Pinheiro LM, Ivanov MK, Kozlova E, Blinova V, Kolganova J, Vasconcelos C, McKenzie JA, Bernasconi SM, Kopf AJ, Díaz-del-Río V, González FJ, Somoza L (2012) Formation processes of methane-derived authigenic carbonates from the Gulf of Cadiz. Sediment Geol 243–244:155–168
Mascle J, Mary F, Praeg D, Brosolo L, Camera L, Ceramicola S, Dupré S (2014) Distribution and geological control of mud volcanoes and other fluid/free gas seepage features in the Mediterranean Sea and nearby Gulf of Cadiz. Geo-Mar Lett 34:89–110
Milodowski AE, Lacinska A, Sloane H (2009) Petrography and stable isotope geochemistry of samples of methane-derived authigenic carbonates (MDAC) from the Mid Irish Sea. British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, Commissioned Report, CR/09/051
Mogollón JM, Dale AW, Jensen JB, Schlüter M, Regnier P (2013) A method for the calculation of anaerobic oxidation of methane rates across regional scales: an example from the Belt Seas and The Sound (North Sea–Baltic Sea transition). Geo-Mar Lett 33:299–310
Nielsen T, Laier T, Kuijpers A, Rasmussen TL, Mikkelsen NE, Nørgård-Pedersen N (2014) Fluid flow and methane occurrences in the Disko Bugt area offshore West Greenland: indications for gas hydrates? Geo-Mar Lett 34:511–523
Niemann H, Elvert M, Hovland M, Orcutt B, Judd AG, Suck I, Gutt J, Joye SB, Damm E, Finster K, Boetius A (2005) Methane emission and consumption at a North Sea gas seep (Tommeliten area). Biogeosciences 2:335–351
Niemann H, Linke P, Knittel K, MacPherson E, Boetius A, Brückmann W, Larvik G, Wallmann K, Schacht U, Omoregie E, Hilton D, Brown K, Rehder G (2013) Methane-carbon flow into the benthic food web at cold seeps – A case study from the Costa Rica subduction zone. PLoS ONE 8, e74894. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074894
O’Reilly SS (2013) Organic carbon cycling in marine sediments and seabed seepage features in Irish waters. PhD thesis, Dublin City University, http://doras.dcu.ie/19390/
O’Reilly SS, Szpak MT, Monteys X, Kelleher BP (2010) Ground-truthing of gas-related seabed features in the Western Irish Sea: CV10-28 Cruise Report. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin
O’Reilly SS, Hryniewicz K, Little CTS, Monteys X, Szpak MT, Murphy BT, Jordan SF, Allen CCR, Kelleher BP (2014) Shallow water methane-derived authigenic carbonate mounds at the Codling Fault Zone, western Irish Sea. Mar Geol 357:139–150
Pierre C, Bayon G, Blanc-Valleron M-M, Mascle J, Dupré S (2014) Authigenic carbonates related to active seepage of methane-rich hot brines at the Cheops mud volcano, Menes caldera (Nile deep-sea fan, eastern Mediterranean Sea). Geo-Mar Lett 34:253–267
Rice DD, Claypool GE (1981) Generation, accumulation, and resource potential of biogenic gas. AAPG Bull 65:5–25
Schroot BM, Schüttenhelm RTE (2003) Expressions of shallow gas in the Netherlands North Sea. Netherlands J Geosci/Geol Mijnb 82(1):91–105
Schubel JR (1974) Gas bubbles and the acoustically impenetrable, or turbid, character of some estuarine sediments. In: Kaplan IR (ed) Marine Science 3. Plenum Press, New York, pp 275–298
Scourse JD, Furze FA (2001) A critical review of the glaciomarine model for Irish Sea deglaciation: evidence from southern Britain, the Celtic shelf and adjacent continental slope. J Quat Sci 16:419–434
Southard JB (1971) Representation of bed configurations in depth-velocity-size diagrams. J Sediment Petrol 41(4):903–915
Spötl C, Vennemann TW (2003) Continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometric analysis of carbonate minerals. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 17:1004–1006
Tomczk M, Bohrmann G, Berges BJP, White PR, Leighton TG, Wright IC (2012) Detection, localization and quantification of the emissions of gas from the seabed in fieldwork and experimental studies using active sonar systems. In: Proc 11th European Conf Underwater Acoustics (ECUA2012), 2–6 July 2012, Edinburgh, pp 605–612
Upstill-Goddard RC, Barnes J, Frost T, Punshon S, Owens NJP (2000) Methane in the southern North Sea: low-salinity inputs, estuarine removal, and atmospheric flux. Global Biogeochem Cycles 14(4):1205–1217
Van Landeghem KJJ, Wheeler AJ, Mitchell NC, Sutton G (2009a) Variations in sediment wave dimensions across the tidally dominated Irish Sea, NW Europe. Mar Geol 263:108–119
Van Landeghem KJJ, Wheeler AJ, Mitchell NC (2009b) Seafloor evidence for palaeo-ice streaming and calving of the grounded Irish Sea Ice Stream: implications for the interpretation of its final deglaciation phase. Boreas 38:119–131
Van Landeghem KJJ, Uehara K, Wheeler AJ, Mitchell NC, Scourse JD (2009c) Post-glacial sediment dynamics in the Irish Sea and sediment wave morphology: data–model comparisons. Cont Shelf Res 29:1723–1736
Van Landeghem KJJ, Baas JH, Mitchell NC, Wilcockson D, Wheeler AJ (2012) Sediment wave migration in the Irish Sea, NW Europe: a reappraisal of the validity of geometry-based predictive modelling and assumptions. Mar Geol 295–298:95–112
Wehrmann LM, Templer SP, Brunner B, Bernasconi SM, Maignien L, Ferdelman TG (2011) The imprint of methane seepage on the geochemical record and early diagenetic processes in cold-water coral mounds on Pen Duick Escarpment, Gulf of Cadiz. Mar Geol 282:118–137
Wentworth CK (1922) A scale of grade and class terms for clastic sediments. J Geol 30:377–392
Wheeler SJ (1988) A conceptual model for soils containing large gas bubbles. Géotechnique 38:389–397
Whomersley P, Wilson C, Clement A, Brown C, Long D, Leslie A, Limpenny D (2009) Understanding the marine environment – seabed habitat investigations of submarine structures in the mid Irish Sea and Solan Bank Area of Search (AoS). JNCC Rep no 430
Wiesenburg DA, Guinasso NL (1979) Equilibrium solubilities of methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen in water and sea water. J Chem Eng Data 24:356–360
Wilkens RH, Richardson MD (1998) The influence of gas bubbles on sediment acoustic properties: in situ, laboratory, and theoretical results from Eckernförde Bay, Baltic sea. Cont Shelf Res 18:1859–1892
Yuan F, Bennell JD, Davis AM (1992) Acoustic and physical characteristics of gassy sediments in the Western Irish Sea. Cont Shelf Res 12:1124–1134
Zemskaya TI, Sitnikova TY, Kiyashko SI, Kalmychkov GV, Pogodaeva TV, Mekhanikova IV, Naumova TV, Shubenkova OV, Chernitsina SM, Kotsar OV, Chernyaev ES, Khlystov OM (2012) Faunal communities at sites of gas- and oil-bearing fluids in Lake Baikal. Geo-Mar Lett 32:437–451
Acknowledgements
This scientific survey (CV12007) was funded for 8 days offshore, including shipment and travel, by the European Commission (EC Grant agreement no. 228344) through the EUROFLEETS Project, a EU project funded through the EU FP7 Capacities/Research Infrastructures Programme, aiming at creating an alliance of European research fleets, bound to the general EC terms for project funding. An extra 2 days offshore were funded by the Petroleum Affairs Division, which is part of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources which regulates, protects and develops the Natural Resources of Ireland. The project partners at Bangor University, the University of Liverpool, the University of Basel and the Università degli Studi di Genova funded 1 supplementary day on the RV Celtic Voyager. Helge Niemann was funded through a COST Short Term Scientific Mission (COST-STSM-ECOST-STSM- ES0902-190312-016289), and Lea Steinle through the Swiss National Science Foundation (project 138057). Independent assessments by three reviewers are acknowledged.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Landeghem, K.J.J., Niemann, H., Steinle, L.I. et al. Geological settings and seafloor morphodynamic evolution linked to methane seepage. Geo-Mar Lett 35, 289–304 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-015-0407-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-015-0407-5