Abstract
Gas hydrates from the continental margin settings are mostly confined to continental slopes. The free gas occurring below the gas hydrate laden sediments play a crucial role in the submarine slope failures and can potentially trigger the submarine landslides. The present study is carried out to investigate such a scenario in the shale dominated Krishna–Godavari (KG) basin having proven gas hydrate deposits. Shale reservoirs are less permeable compared to sandstone reservoirs and as such, the free gas that is locked in the pore spaces of shales would eventually create hydro fractures or faults to escape from the pore spaces. This overpressure from the gas zone will find a pathway to reach the shallower depths. In the present study, two faults are identified of which, one is acting as a potential pathway for overpressures to travel through it, while the other is found to be critically pressurized due to the gas zone below it. The calculated gas column height is ~51 m and any further increase in the gas column height would create a fault slip and cause the mechanical failure of the sediments, creating another potential pathway. We infer that these faults are acting as a migration pathway in our study area and the advection of fluid/gas from the gas zone via the pathway might have played a major role in creating a slope break above the fault.
Research highlights
-
Gas migration and role of free gas on slope stability.
-
Seismic attributes for characterization of free gas zones and migration pathways
-
Gas column height and critical gas pressure necessary to initiate fault activation.
-
Active and passive faults and their role as migration pathways.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Collet T, Riedel M, Cochran J, Boswell R, Presley J, Kumar P, Sathe A, Sethi A, Lall M, Sibal V and the NGHP expedition scientists 2007 National Gas hydrate Program Expedition 1 Initial Reports.
Elger J, Berndt C, Rupke L, Krastel S, Gross F and Geissler W H 2018 Submarine slope failures due to pipe structure formation; Nat. Commun. 9 715, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03176-1.
Flemings P, Liu X and Winters W J 2003 Critical pressure and multiphase flow in Blake Ridge gas hydrates; Geology 31 1057–1060, https://doi.org/10.1130/g19863.1.
Gorman A R, Holbrook W S, Hornbac M J, Hackwith K L, Lizarralde D and Pecher I 2002 Migration of methane gas through the hydrate stability zone in a low flux hydrate province; Geology 30(4) 327, https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030%3c0327:momgtt%3e2.0.co;2.
Hamilton E L 1979 Vp/Vs and Poisson’s ratios in marine sediments and rocks; J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66 1093, https://doi.org/10.1121/1.383344.
Hance J J B S 2003 Development of a database and assessment of seafloor slope stability based on published literature (M.S. Engineering Thesis); Austin, The University of Texas.
Hornbach M J, Saffer D M, Holbrook W S, Avendonk V H J A and Gorman A R 2008 Three-dimensional seismic imaging of the Blake Ridge methane hydrate province: Evidence for large, concentrated zones of gas hydrate and morphologically driven advection; J. Geophys. Res., https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005392.
Hornbach M J, Saffer D M and Holbrook W S 2004 Critically pressured gas reservoirs below gas hydrate provinces; Nat. Commun. 427, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02172.
Hillman J I T, Klaucke I, Bialas J, Feldman H, Drexler T, Awwiller D, Atgin O, Cifci G and Badhani S 2018 Gas migration pathways and slope failures in the Danube fan, Black Sea; Mar. Petrol. Geol. 92 1069–1084, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.03.025.
Kumar J, Sain K and Arun K P 2018 Seismic attributes for characterizing gas hydrates: A study from Mahanadi offshore, India; Mar. Geophys. Res. 40 73–86, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-018-9357-4.
Kumar P C, Naim F and Mohanty S 2016 Seismic expression of polygonal fault system: An example from North Sea, Dutch offshore; In: SPG/SEG 2016 International Geophysical Conference, Beijing, China, 20–22 April 2016, https://doi.org/10.1190/IGCBeijing2016-169.
Luo X, Were P, Liu J and Hou Z 2015 Estimation of Biot’s effective stress coefficient from well logs; Environ. Earth Sci. 73 7019–7028, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4219-8.
Posamentier H W and Martinsen O J 2010 The character and genesis of submarine mass-transport deposits: Insights from outcrop and 3D seismic data Sedim; Sedim. Soc. Geol, https://doi.org/10.2110/sepmsp.096.007.
Ramprasad T, Dewangan P, Ramana M V, Mazumdar A, Karisiddaiah S M, Ramya E R and Sriram G 2011 Evidence of slumping/sliding in Krishna–Godavari offshore basin due to gas/fluid movements; Mar. Petrol. Geol. 28 1806–1816, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpet.geo.2011.02.007.
Rao Y H, Subrahmanyam C, Rastogi A and Deka B 2002 Slope failures along the western continental margin of India: A consequence of gas-hydrate dissociation, rapid sedimentation rate, and seismic activity? Geo. Mar. Lett. 22 162–169, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-002-0107-9.
Sain K, Rajesh V, Satyavani N, Subbarao K V and Subrahmanyam C 2011 Gas-hydrate stability thickness map along the Indian continental margin; Mar. Petrol. Geol. 28 1779–1786, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2011.03.008.
Satyavani N, Sain K, Lall M and Kumar B J P 2008 Seismic attribute study for gas hydrates in the Andaman Offshore India; Mar. Geophys. Res. 29(3) 167–175, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-008-9053-x.
Sloan E D 1998 Clathrate Hydrate of Natural Gases; 2nd edn, Marcel Dekker, New York.
Taner M T, Koehler F and Sheriff R E 1979 Complex trace analysis; Geophysics 44(6) 10411063, https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1440994.
Terzaghi K 1956 Varieties of submarine slope failures; Presented at Texas Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Austin.
Vasskog K, Waldmann N, Bondeveik S, Nesje A, Chapron E and Ariztegui D 2013 Evidence for storegga tsunami run-up at the head of Nordfjord, western Norway; J. Quat. Sci. 28(4) 391–402, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2633.
Yin Z and Linga P 2019 Methane hydrates: A future clean energy resource; Chinese J. Chem. Eng., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2019.01.005.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Director, CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute for his kind consent to publish this work (Ref. No. NGRI/Lib/2020/Pub-30). We extend our sincere thanks to the Director General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH); Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and CSIR-NIO for providing valuable 3D seismic data for the present study. Authors would like to thank V Subrahmanyam, former General Manager of ONGC-Videsh for his support and suggestions. Authors also thank A Ramesh for helping with the figures. This work is carried out in the Project MLP-6402 of CSIR-NGRI.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
PJ: Literature survey, research concept, all computations, seismic data processing of data used in this publication. NS: Research guidance and overall supervision (data processing, computations and manuscript preparation). KS: Seismic navigation sorting and plotting, GMT figures.
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Anand Joshi
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Palle, J., Nittala, S. & Samudrala, K. Gas hydrate/free gas migration pathways in submarine slope failures: East Indian Margin. J Earth Syst Sci 130, 83 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01575-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01575-5