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Geochemical Patterns of Mud Volcanic Waters: Reviewed Worldwide Data

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This paper is the world’s first to generalize and analyze worldwide data on the chemical composition of waters from 175 onshore mud volcanoes. Empirical probability density functions are obtained for the dominant anions and cations, whose average concentrations (Clarke values) were also estimated. Correlations between the geochemical parameters of the samples (Na and Cl concentrations, Na/Cl ratio and \({\text{HCO}}_{3}^{ - }\) concentration, Cl/Br ratio and Cl concentration, Cl/B ratio and \({\text{HCO}}_{3}^{ - }\) concentration, etc.) were determined and used in the further analysis of conditions under which mud volcanic waters are formed. The waters are mainly slightly alkaline, with mineralization (TDS) in the range of 5 to 25 g/L and mostly belong to the Cl–Na type (about 58%), with waters of the Cl–HCO3–Na (about 23%) and HCO3–Cl–Na (about 12%) types being less common. When mud volcanic chambers are formed, mainly connate (sedimentation–buried seawaters) waters are localized in them. The further evolution of mud volcanic waters is controlled largely by interaction in the water–rock–gas system (in the channel of the mud volcanoes). These interactions involve, first of all, the influx of CO2 in mud volcanoes, hydrolysis of aluminosilicates, sorption–desorption from the exchange complex of clay, smectite illitization, sulfate reduction, and the precipitation of carbonate minerals. Therewith the processes of dilution (with water formed during the dehydration of clay minerals and by meteoric waters) and evaporation are demonstrated to also play important roles. An interplay of all of these processes, whose intensity varies from one mud volcano to another, determines the diversity of the chemical composition of mud volcanic waters.

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Funding

The reported study was funded by RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research), project number 19-15-50133 Expansion.

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  1. Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Science, 693022, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia

    O. A. Nikitenko & V. V. Ershov

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Nikitenko, O.A., Ershov, V.V. Geochemical Patterns of Mud Volcanic Waters: Reviewed Worldwide Data. Geochem. Int. 59, 922–937 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702921090044

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