Real-time drilling mud gas monitoring for qualitative evaluation of hydrocarbon gas composition during deep sea drilling in the Nankai Trough Kumano Basin

Background

Riverine particles undergo a rapid transformation when they reach estuaries. The rapid succession of hydrodynamic and biogeochemical regimes forces the particles to flocculate, settle and enter the sediment pool. The rates and magnitudes of flocculation depend on the nature of the particles which are primarily affected by the types and quantities of organic matter (OM). Meanwhile, the OM characteristics vary widely between environments, as well as within a single environment due to seasonal climate and land use variability. We investigated the effect of the OM types and quantities through laboratory experiments using natural estuarine particles from the Mississippi Sound and Atchafalaya Bay as well as model mixtures of montmorillonite and organic molecules (i.e., biopolymers (guar/xanthan gums) and humic acid).

Results

Biopolymers promote flocculation but the magnitude depends on the types and quantities. Nonionic guar gum yields much larger flocs than anionic xanthan gum, while both of them exhibit a nonlinear behavior in which the flocculation is the most pronounced at the intermediate OM loading. Moreover, the effect of guar gum is independent of salinity whereas the effect of xanthan gum is pronounced at higher salinity. Meanwhile, humic acid does not affect flocculation at all salinity values tested in this study. These results are echoed in the laboratory manipulation of the natural estuarine particles. Flocculation of the humic acid-rich Mississippi Sound particles is unaffected by the OM, whereas that of biopolymer-rich Atchafalaya Bay particles is enhanced by the OM.

Conclusions

Flocculation is positively influenced by the presence of biopolymers that are produced as the result of marine primary production. Meanwhile, humic acid, which is abundant in the rivers that drain the agricultural soils of Southeastern United States, has little influence on flocculation. Thus, it is expected that humic acid-poor riverine particles (e.g., Mississippi River, and Atchafalaya River, to a lesser degree) may be prone to rapid flocculation and settling in the immediate vicinity of the river mouths when mixed with biopolymer-rich coastal waters. It is also expected that humic acid-rich riverine particles (e.g., Pearl River) may resist immediate flocculation and be transported further away from the river mouth.     

Mesoproterozoic rift-related alkaline magmatism at Elchuru, Prakasam Alkaline Province, SE India

The Elchuru alkaline complex in the Prakasam igneous province represents one occurrence of several alkaline bodies within the craton–Eastern Ghats Belt contact zone in Peninsular India. Nepheline syenites and associated mafic rocks intruded the cratonic crust at ≈1321 Ma and were deformed–metamorphosed to amphibolite facies condition during Pan-African times. Trace element compositions and Sr, Nd and Pb isotopic systematics indicate that the alkaline magma was derived from an enriched mantle source in the sub-continental lithosphere. The adjacent crusts of the Eastern Dharwar craton and the Eastern Ghats Belt were not involved either as source or as contaminants. The enriched mantle source was at least 1.9–2.1 Ga old as seen from the depleted mantle model ages of the rocks. The primary parent magma was a basanitic liquid that fractionated ferrokaersutite and clinopyroxene in the mantle, lowering the density sufficiently for the residual melt to intrude the crust. Magmatic differentiation in the suite can be explained by a two stage fractional crystallization model involving the removal of amphibole, clinopyroxene, allanite, titanite, apatite and zircon. The rift-related intra-continental setting of the complex indicates that alkaline magmatism represents the manifestation of a Mesoproterozoic continental breakup. Rifting along the cratonic margin may have led to the formation of several cratogenic basins (e.g., Chattisgarh basin, Indravati basin etc.) where stable shelf-type sediments could have been deposited on the passive margin during the Proterozoic. It could also have opened an ocean where some of the sediments of the Eastern Ghats Province may have been deposited.