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Bottom Simulating Reflections Below the Blake Ridge, Western North Atlantic Margin

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World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins

Abstract

The Blake Ridge is a large (~100,000 km2), well-studied gas hydrate province located off the southeastern coast of the US. When it was found, it was considered one of the finest sites for studying marine gas hydrate systems on passive margins due to its perceived geologic simplicity and ubiquitous bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs). The past 50 years of coring, drilling, seismic- and submersible-surveys reveal that the gas hydrate system at Blake Ridge is surprisingly complex. Evidence for a dynamic phase boundary includes seismic indicators of active gas chimneys, subsurface overpressures, anomalously shallow BSRs, and evidence for past and present methane migration to the seafloor, some of which sustains chemosynthetic communities at the Blake Ridge Diapir. The drivers of this dynamic gas hydrate system at Blake Ridge are not fully understood, but may be associated with bottom water temperature changes, ocean current variability, continued gas formation and migration and ongoing ocean-earth-climate interactions. Despite 50 years of research, controls on the gas hydrate phase boundary below Blake Ridge remains poorly constrained.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

    Matthew J. Hornbach

Authors
  1. Matthew J. Hornbach
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Correspondence to Matthew J. Hornbach .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CAGE—Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, Department of Geosciences, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Jürgen Mienert

  2. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Christian Berndt

  3. College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Anne M. Tréhu

  4. National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics—OGS, Sgonico, Trieste, Italy

    Angelo Camerlenghi

  5. National Taiwan University Ocean Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Char-Shine Liu

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Hornbach, M.J. (2022). Bottom Simulating Reflections Below the Blake Ridge, Western North Atlantic Margin. In: Mienert, J., Berndt, C., Tréhu, A.M., Camerlenghi, A., Liu, CS. (eds) World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81186-0_10

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