东沙群岛西南海区泥火山的地球物理特征

多道反射地震和CHIRP浅地层剖面显示在南海东沙群岛西南陆坡和白云凹陷东部陆坡之间的深水(600~1 000m)陆坡上矗立着一系列高出周围海底50~100m的丘形地质体,其内部地层发生褶皱,反射波呈现杂乱和空白,海底声波屏蔽严重。浅地层剖面还显示丘状构造带有气体羽状构造,从海底进入水体高达50m。海底沉积取样分析表明,这些海丘区的表层分布着生物成因的致密碳酸盐结核。可以推断东沙西南的丘形地质体就是泥火山带,并且可能是一个重要的水合物潜在区。东沙西南海区泥火山表现出构造挤压和带状分布的特点,不同于南海北部神狐和九龙甲烷礁已发现水合物区的非泥火山,也不同于全球其他典型被动大陆边缘的泥火山特征,其构造成因和水合物潜力有待进一步研究。     

环北极深水盆地群油气地质特征及勘探潜力

环北极深水盆地群油气资源丰富,资源量达2 200亿桶油当量,但总体勘探程度较低,是未来深水油气勘探开发重要的战略接替区.对环北极深水盆地群中巴伦支海盆地、东格陵兰盆地、北极斜坡盆地和斯沃特里普盆地4个含油气盆地做了详细调研,得出以下结论:环北极深水区油气主要富集在中生界,本区共发育有三叠系、中—上侏罗统泥页岩2套区域性...     

南海深海平原海山、海丘分布规律及形成环境

南海深海平原有众多的海山、海丘分布,相对高差1 000m以上的高大海山即有18座,并对其中14座主要海山予以命名.海山和海丘的排列方向具有明显的规律性,有北东向线状海山和链状海山、东西向链状海山或海丘、南北向链状海山或海丘和北西向链状海山或海丘.海山、海丘的排列方向明显受南海板块构造运动控制,高差悬殊的海山和海丘系由玄武岩浆沿海盆断裂构造线上溢发而成.     

南海东北部峡谷体系的地貌特征与发育控制因素

海底峡谷在全球陆缘广泛分布，是浅海沉积物向深海运移的主要通道，对于理解深海浊流触发机制、深海沉积物的搬运模式、深海扇的发育历史和深海油气资源勘探等均具有重要意义。本文基于高分辨率高精度的多波束测深数据，首次对南海东北部海底峡谷体系进行了研究，精细刻画了高屏海底峡谷、澎湖海底峡谷、台湾浅滩南海底峡谷和东沙海底峡谷等4条大型海底峡谷的地貌特征并分析其发育控制因素。海底坡度、构造运动、海山与海丘是影响南海东北部峡谷群走向与特征的重要因素，其中，海底坡度对于峡谷上游多分支与“V”字特征有显著的控制作用；构造运动是控制高屏海底峡谷走向的因素，澎湖海底峡谷的走向则与菲律宾海板块与欧亚板块碰撞有关，东沙海底峡谷的走向则与东沙运动相关，台湾浅滩南海底峡谷上段受NW向断裂构造的控制；海山的阻挡作用造成峡谷局部走向和特征改变。海底峡谷群输送大量陆源沉积物到深海盆并形成大面积的沉积物波，海山和沉积物波的发育导致东沙海底峡谷下段“回春”和转向。     

东沙西南海区泥火山的分布及其物质来源层位

早期的多道地震和浅剖测线数据表明东沙西南海域可能存在一些泥火山。2014年在该海域加密了多道地震测线和浅剖测线。通过对新采数据的处理,在多道地震剖面中发现了大量反映泥火山存在的丘形隆起、喷发凹槽及反射空白带等特征;在浅剖剖面上发现了指示泥火山存在的丘状构造、局部海底反射加强以及气体羽等现象。对比分析相邻的多道和浅剖剖面,发现该区存在大量泥火山,沿NWW—SEE方向呈带状分布。其中最大泥火山长度大于15km,宽约8km,高约285m。泥火山坡度较大,两翼倾角在5.5?~15.9?之间。剖面上显示有些泥火山对应的构造形变及反射空白带至少延伸到海底以下5.5km深度,经过与附近海区地震剖面解释成果的对比,推断泥火山物质来源层位为中生界。     

东沙海域复杂海况下单源单缆长排列地震资料处理*

大量研究表明南海北部东沙海域的中生界地层具有很好的油气成藏条件, 是油气勘探的有利区域。但中生界地层构造成像不清晰限制了该区域油气资源的准确评价。本文利用在该海域采用单源单缆长排列采集的三维地震数据, 提出了对该类数据的优化处理技术方案, 以期获得中生界地层的清晰成像。处理过程主要包括各种噪音干扰和不同类型多次波的压制, 尤其是比较严重的海洋湍流干扰压制, 提高中深层反射信号信噪比; 通过压制气泡和压缩子波提高地震反射的分辨率; 同时利用高密度速度分析进行各向异性双谱非双曲线动校正, 提高成像质量, 使波组特征、振幅特征更为明显。针对密集二维采集数据特点, 通过合理的面元规则化处理, 使得覆盖次数均匀和横向分辨率提高, 实现高精度三维成像。本研究针对噪音干扰较严重的单源单缆长排列加密地震资料, 按照三维地震资料进行数据处理, 处理后明显突出了浅、中、深各层的有效信息, 特别是针对中生界的成像质量改善更为明显, 形成了一套行之有效的处理流程, 为今后邻近区块的勘探和资料处理提供了技术基础, 也为东沙海域的油气勘探与评价提供了科学依据。     

泥底辟/泥火山流体热效应及其对天然气水合物赋存的影响

泥底辟/泥火山流体热效应对天然气水合物赋存的影响是探索泥底辟/泥火山发育区水合物赋存规律的关键问题。笔者在分析总结国外泥底辟/泥火山流体热异常及其对天然气水合物赋存之影响的基础上,重点探讨了我国南海北部陆坡珠江口盆地神狐海域SH5站位未钻获水合物的原因及泥底辟/泥火山流体热效应对天然气水合物赋存的影响。当初寄予厚望的位于泥底辟之上的SH5站位未成功钻遇水合物的原因是晚期泥底辟刺穿水合物稳定带使深部高温流体沿着泥底辟和断裂通道上侵,该过程致使水合物稳定带温度场升高进而导致早期形成的水合物发生分解,因此,泥底辟/泥火山的流体热效应会直接制约水合物的赋存。探索泥底辟/泥火山流体热效应及其对水合物成藏的影响,不仅为丰富和完善流体渗漏构造环境下天然气水合物成藏动力学研究与勘探提供了热力学理论依据,而且对天然气水合物勘探开发及资源潜力评价等具有重要的指导意义。     

我国油气层序地层学进展及在碳酸盐岩油气勘探中的应用

结合"全国第5届油气层序地层学"学术研讨会的相关内容,阐述了我国油气层序地层学理论和技术方法研究的进展;介绍了有关坳陷型盆地、断陷型盆地和深水扇特别是海相碳酸盐岩—生物礁系统油气层序地层学领域等重要研究成果;指出其现实意义特别重要,对于我国各大油气区及海洋深水油气勘探及可持续发展具有明显的推动作用。     

东海陆架盆地南部及邻近陆域中生代地层格架对比

在大量收集东海陆架盆地南部海域和邻近浙闽陆域中生界露头、钻井和地震资料的基础上,按由陆及海的思路,从构造、地层和沉积等方面入手,对海域和陆域中生界进行了划分及对比,探讨了这一区域的中生代地层格架和盆地类型,初步建立了东海陆架盆地南部及邻区中生代地层格架对比关系。东海陆架盆地南部中生代地层格架的厘定具有重要的理论和油气勘探实际意义。     

珠江口盆地深水区油气储层发育规律及勘探方向北大核心CSCD

珠江口盆地白云凹陷是我国深水油气勘探的重点区域,然而对其深水储层分布特征及规律并没有明确的认识。利用钻井、岩心以及地震资料,针对白云凹陷发育的三套重要的储层,从储层类型分析入手探讨了其时空展布规律,指明珠江口盆地深水区油气勘探方向。研究结果表明:珠江口盆地深水区主要发育深水扇、陆架边缘三角洲与东沙台缘斜坡扇砂体;在缓陆坡阶段,主要在陆架坡折带附近发育陆架边缘三角洲和深水扇储层,而在陡陆坡阶段深水储层主要发育在陆架坡折带的下方,为典型的深水扇砂体;珠江口盆地深水油气勘探目标主要为SQ23.8发育的陆架边缘三角洲、深水扇以及台缘斜坡扇砂体,SQ21时期水道、深水扇和陆架边缘三角洲砂体,SQ13.8发育的深水扇砂体、水道充填砂体。     

Discovery of the southwest Dongsha Island mud volcanoes amid the northern margin of the South China Sea

The Dongsha Basin, circling Dongsha Island that is amid the northern margin of the South China Sea, is characterized by thin (∼0.5 km) Cenozoic sediments veneering on thick (up to 5 km) Mesozoic strata. Recently, several geophysical and geological surveys, including multiple channel reflection seismic, sub-bottom profiling and benthic dredging, have been conducted on the slope southwest to the Dongsha Island, where the water depth varies from 400 m to 2000 m. A novel discovery is numerous submarine mud volcanoes of various sizes over there, typically 50–200 m high and 0.5–5 km wide. Geophysical profiles document their unusual features, e.g., roughly undulating seafloor, high-amplitude seabed reflectivity, foggy hyperbolic diffractions up to 50 m in water column above seabed, and internal reflection chaos and wipe-out down to 2–3 km level or deeper below the seabed. Benthic dredging from the mud volcanoes gives abundant faunas of high diversity, e.g., scleractinian (stony coral), gorgonian, black coral, thiophil tubeworm, glass sponge, bryozoan etc., indicating booming chemosynthetic community, among which the Lophelia pertusa-like coral and the Euretidae-like glass sponges are the first reports in the South China Sea. Concomitantly with them, there are also abundant authigenic carbonate nodules and slabs, raw, brecciated and breccias with bio-clasts congregation. Besides, there coexist massive mudflows and allogenic coarse-grained quartz, feldspar and tourmaline most likely brought out by mud volcanism. Geochemical analysis of the bottom water samples give dissolved methane concentration up to 4 times higher than the background average. These results lend comprehensive evidences for the ongoing and historical mud volcanism. The escaping methane gas is inferred to source mainly from the Mesozoic strata. Occupying a large province of the deep water slope, ca. 1000 km² or more, the mud volcanoes is prospective for gas hydrate and natural gas for the Dongsha Basin.     

Warm brine lakes in craters of active mud volcanoes,Menes caldera off NW Egypt: evidence for deep-rooted thermogenic processes

The Menes caldera is a fault-controlled depression (~8 km in diameter) at ~3,000 m water depth in the western province of the Nile deep-sea fan off NW Egypt, comprising seven mud volcanoes (MVs) of which two are active. Based on multichannel and chirp seismic data, temperature profiles, and high-resolution bathymetric data collected during the 2000 Fanil, 2004 Mimes and 2007 Medeco2 expeditions, the present study investigates factors controlling MV morphology, the geometry of feeder channels, and the origin of emitted fluids. The active Cheops and Chephren MVs are 1,500 m wide with subcircular craters at their summits, about 250 m in diameter, generally a few tens of metres deep, and filled with methane-rich muddy brines with temperatures reaching 42 °C and 57 °C respectively. Deployments of CTDs and corers with attached temperature sensors tracked these warm temperatures down to almost 0.5 km depth below the brine lake surface at the Cheops MV, in a feeder channel probably only a few tens of metres wide. Thermogenic processes involve the dissolution of Messinian evaporites by warm fluids likely sourced even deeper, i.e. 1.7 and 2.6 km below the seabed at the Cheops and Chephren MVs respectively, and which ascend along listric faults. Seepage activity appears broadly persistent since the initiation of mud volcanism in the Early Pliocene, possibly accompanied by lateral migration of feeder channels.     

Acoustic investigations of mud volcanoes in the Sorokin Trough, Black Sea

The Sorokin Trough (Black Sea) is characterized by diapiric structures formed in a compressional tectonic regime that facilitate fluid migration to the seafloor. We present acoustic data in order to image details of mud volcanoes associated with the diapirs. Three types of mud volcanoes were distinguished: cone-shaped, flat-topped, and collapsed structures. All mud volcanoes, except for the Kazakov mud volcano, are located above shallow mud diapirs and diapiric ridges. Beyond the known near-surface occurrence of gas hydrates, bottom simulating reflectors are not seen on our seismic records, but pronounced lateral amplitude variations and bright spots may indicate the presence of gas hydrates and free gas.     

Evidence of subsurface anaerobic biodegradation of hydrocarbons and potential secondary methanogenesis in terrestrial mud volcanoes

The assessment of gas origin in mud volcanoes and related petroleum systems must consider post-genetic processes which may alter the original molecular and isotopic composition of reservoir gas. Beyond eventual molecular and isotopic fractionation due to gas migration and microbial oxidation, investigated in previous studies, we now demonstrate that mud volcanoes can show signals of anaerobic biodegradation of natural gas and oil in the subsurface. A large set of gas geochemical data from more than 150 terrestrial mud volcanoes worldwide has been examined. Due to the very low amount of C₂₊ in mud volcanoes, isotopic ratios of ethane, propane and butane (generally the best tracers of anaerobic biodegradation) are only available in a few cases. However, it is observed that ¹³C-enriched propane is always associated with positive δ¹³C_CO2 values, which are known indicators of secondary methanogenesis following anaerobic biodegradation of petroleum. Data from carbon isotopic ratio of CO₂ are available for 134 onshore mud volcanoes from 9 countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Turkmenistan, Trinidad, Italy, Japan and Taiwan). Exactly 50% of mud volcanoes, all releasing thermogenic or mixed methane, show at least one sample with δ¹³C_CO2 > +5‰ (PDB). Thermogenic CH₄ associated with positive carbon isotopic ratio of CO₂ generally maintains its δ¹³C-enriched signature, which is therefore not perturbed by the lighter secondary microbial gas. There is, however, high variability in the δ¹³C_CO2 values within the same mud volcanoes, so that positive δ¹³C_CO2 values can be found in some vents and not in others, or not continuously in the same vent. This can be due to high sensitivity of δ¹³C_CO2 to gas–water–rock interactions or to the presence of differently biodegraded seepage systems in the same mud volcano. However, finding a positive δ¹³C_CO2 value should be considered highly indicative of anaerobic biodegradation and further analyses should be made, especially if mud volcanoes are to be used as pathfinders of the conditions indicative of subsurface hydrocarbon accumulations in unexplored areas.     

Mud volcanoes in the Mediterranean Sea are hot spots of exclusive meiobenthic species

Mud volcanoes are cold seeps, in which the escape of gas and fluids associated with mud creates 3-D bottom structures that enhance the spatial heterogeneity and potentially alter the functioning of the benthic ecosystems. We investigated a complex system of mud volcanoes of the Mediterranean Sea characterised by the presence of different structures (i.e., isolated domes, domes surrounded by moats, clustered domes, and ridges) displaying different levels of seepage. We hypothesize that the combined effects of seafloor heterogeneity (i.e., different 3-D structures as revealed by detailed topographic analysis), fluid emissions and trophic characteristics of these systems can influence the structural and functional biodiversity of meiofauna (with special focus on the nematodes). We found that sediments affected by intensive seepage displayed the lowest faunal abundances and number of higher taxa. However, mud volcanoes without emissions, but characterized by a high structural complexity (such as the ridges), were associated with the highest meiofaunal abundances and number of higher taxa. Mud volcanoes hosted also a remarkable abundance of rare taxa specifically associated with these structures (e.g., acarians, cumaceans, tanaids, cladocerans and hydroids) and absent in slope sediments (used as a control). Each mud-volcano area displayed a different nematode species composition. Overall 76 nematode species (from a total of 235) were exclusively associated with mud-volcano structures, whilst 29 were exclusively encountered in slope sediments. We conclude that the presence of mud volcanoes, for their contribution to increase spatial heterogeneity and for the extreme conditions associated with gas emissions, promotes higher levels of beta diversity, thus enhancing the regional (gamma) benthic diversity. These findings provide new insights on the factors controlling meiobenthic biodiversity in mud volcanoes and clues for future action of conservation of the biodiversity specifically associated with these habitats.     

南海北部陆坡东沙海域海底丘状体气体与水合物分布

海底丘状体在天然气水合物发育区是一种常见的微地貌,对丘状体的研究有助于理解海底流体渗漏模式以及水合物的赋存规律。本文研究南海北部陆坡东沙海域天然气水合物发育区海底丘状体的特征及其与水合物的关系。研究所用的数据包括准三维多道地震数据、多波束数据以及浅地层剖面数据。在多波束海底地形图上,丘状体表现为局部的正地形,直径大约为300 m,高出周围海底约50 m。浅地层剖面上存在明显的声空白以及同相轴下拉现象,指示了海底丘状体气体的分布以及流体运移的路径。丘状体周围明显的BSR表明局部区域可能发育有水合物,水合物钻探结果也证实了这一推测。三维多道地震剖面上,丘状体正下方存在空白反射区域,这与泥火山的地震反射特征类似。但空白反射区域内存在强振幅能量,而且丘状体正下方存在连续的反射层,这表明该丘状体并非泥火山成因。综合钻探结果以及三维地震成像结果,认为水合物形成过程引起的沉积物膨胀以及海底碳酸盐岩的沉淀是形成该丘状体的主要原因。     

The volumes of volcanic seamounts as a factor determining the formation of the ocean floor’s morphostructure

The volumes of formed volcanoes are an important indicator of the formation intensity of the ocean floor volcanogenic morphostructure under different geodynamic conditions. The distribution of the volumes of volcanoes that formed within the oceanic lithosphere of different geological ages is considered to analyze the spatial and time dynamics of the scopes of the seamount formation. The greatest volumes of effused rocks concentrate in volcanoes of different heights on the different-age segments of the lithosphere. The total volumes of volcanogenic substance growing with increasing age and thickness of the lithosphere is caused by the increasing range of the heights of the formed volcanoes and the growing number of big seamounts. Despite that the volcanic seamounts formed within the mid-oceanic ridges, on the divergent boundaries of the lithospheric plates and in the transform faults most often, half of the volcanogenic material was emitted to the earth’s surface during the spreading of the intraplate volcanism. A leading part in the formation of the volcanogenic morphostructure of the ocean floor belongs to the formation of big seamounts with heights of 4–6 km and volumes from 1500 to 5100 km³, respectively, in the provinces with ages from 60 to 90 mln years.     

Active mud volcanoes on the upper slope of the western Nile deep-sea fan—first results from the P362/2 cruise of R/V Poseidon

In February 2008, cruise P362/2 was undertaken aboard R/V Poseidon to the Giza and North Alex mud volcanoes (MVs) on the upper slope of the western Nile deep-sea fan. Emitted fluids were strongly depleted in chloride and rich in hydrocarbons, predominantly of thermogenic origin. In-situ sediment temperature measurements indicate extremely high and moderate levels of activity for the North Alex MV and Giza MV, respectively, and suggest rapid changes from dormant to active stages. Both the physical properties of core sediments (e.g., color and magnetic susceptibility), and their assemblages of micro- and nannofossils point to different sources for the two mud volcanoes. Biostratigraphic dating suggests source depths of 2,100–2,450 mbsf for the Giza MV and 1,150–1,550 mbsf for the North Alex MV. Very high temperatures of up to 70°C in shallow sediments at the North Alex MV can be explained only if the fluid source were warmer and deeper than the sediment source.