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Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expeditions, Korea: Lithologic Characteristics of Gas Hydrate-Bearing Sediments

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World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins

Abstract

The Ulleung back-arc basin is a marginal sea, where mass-transport deposits (MTDs) and hemipelagic muddy sediments are intercalated with thin, sandy turbidites in the East Sea (Sea of Japan). Biogenic gas hydrates include pore-filling gas hydrates in silty and sandy sediments, as well as fracture-filling or massive gas hydrates in muddy sediments. These have been observed in all 13 cores taken from the 18 logging-while-drilling sites in a water depth of 897.9–2156.2 m. Pore-filling gas hydrates selectively occur in thin, sandy turbidite layers alternated with hydrate-free, muddy layers in which gas hydrate saturation increases with high sand contents. Fracture-filling and massive gas hydrates occur in hemipelagic muddy sediments within a columnar seismic blanking zone. The stacked MTDs play an important role in the upward migration of methane in the Ulleung back-arc basin. We present the lithologic characteristics of gas hydrate-bearing sediments based on multidisciplinary analyses of the first and second Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expeditions (UBGH1 and 2) in 2007 and in 2010, respectively.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Petroleum & Marine Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon, 34132, Korea

    Jong-Hwa Chun & In-Kwon Um

  2. Department of Oceanography and Ocean Environmental Sciences, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Korea

    Jang-Jun Bahk

Authors
  1. Jong-Hwa Chun
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  2. Jang-Jun Bahk
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  3. In-Kwon Um
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jong-Hwa Chun .

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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Chun, JH., Bahk, JJ., Um, IK. (2022). Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Drilling Expeditions, Korea: Lithologic Characteristics of Gas Hydrate-Bearing Sediments. 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_12

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