Abstract
The Kara Sea shelf is an offshore continuation of the extensive West Siberia hydrocarbon province that stretches from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (bordering the Barents Sea) to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago (bordering the Laptev Sea). The Kara Sea shelf comprises several regions featuring drastically different bathymetric, oceanographic, geological, glaciological and permafrost settings. Due to the extremely limited availability of empirical data, the best tool for estimating gas hydrate potential on the shelf is gas hydrate stability zone modeling coupled with permafrost evolution modeling. This will also allow for the forecasting of areas where gas hydrate systems may be found in the future, through either bottom simulating reflection identification or direct sampling. Deep water troughs (>350 m water depth) in the South and North Kara Sea are zones where pressure and temperature conditions are suitable for the formation and preservation of gas hydrates. The Novaya Zemlya Trough also hosts a suite of hydrocarbon-bearing structures that may supply hydrocarbon gas to the gas hydrate stability zone. The shallow areas of the South Kara Sea (to the west and north of the Yamal peninsula) contain only discontinuous permafrost and cannot bear stable gas hydrate accumulations. The North Kara Sea, in contrast, features a thicker layer of permafrost (circa 100–300 m thick) formed during the LGM and a weaker thermal impact caused by the subsequent sea transgression. In this region, permafrost exceeding 250 m in thickness allows for stable permafrost-related gas hydrate accumulations.
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Serov, P., Portnov, A. (2022). Gas Hydrate Potential in the Kara Sea. 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_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81186-0_21
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