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Gas Hydrates in the Norwegian Sea

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World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins

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Abstract

Gas hydrates are widespread in the Norwegian Sea, particularly near the site of a massive underwater mass wasting event called the Storegga Slide. Here, a gas hydrate-related bottom simulating reflection (BSR) occurs over an area of approximately 4500 km2. The BSR marks the base of current gas hydrate equilibrium conditions, and has even re-equilibrated within the area affected by the slide 8.2 ka BP. The spatial extension of the BSR is restricted to the north by the presence of glacigenic debris flow sequences, which inhibit the upward migration of fluids that form gas hydrates. The eastern boundary is determined by gas hydrate stability conditions, including high bottom water temperatures and shallow depth. The BSR is confined in the west, where the base of the gas hydrate stability zone falls in the fine-grained ooze sediments of the Kai Formation, originating in the Late Miocene/early Pliocene. These sediments are evidently not conducive for gas hydrate growth, as the BSR only occurs within the contouritic and hemipelagic sedimentary sequences of the Plio-Pleistocene Naust Formation. Here, the BSR is generally characterized and identified as an abrupt upper termination of increased reflection amplitudes that form an envelope crosscutting the strata, which is layered nearly horizontally.

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Acknowledgements

This research is part of the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) and was supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme grant 223259.

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  1. CAGE - Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate; Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Stefan Bünz

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  1. Stefan Bünz
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Correspondence to Stefan Bünz .

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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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Bünz, S. (2022). Gas Hydrates in the Norwegian 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_23

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