Gas hydrates from the continental slope,offshore Sakhalin Island,Okhotsk Sea

Ten gas-vent fields were discovered in the Okhotsk Sea on the northeast continental slope offshore from Sakhalin Island in water depths of 620—1040 m. At one vent field, estimated to be more than 250 m across, gas hydrates, containing mainly microbial methane (¹³C = –64.3), were recovered from subbottom depths of 0.3–1.2 m. The sediment, having lenses and bedded layers of gas hydrate, contained 30–40% hydrate per volume of wet sediment. Although gas hydrates were not recovered at other fields, geochemical and thermal measurements suggest that gas hydrates are present.     

GIS-Oriented Database on Seismic Hazard Assessment for Caucasian and Crimean Regions

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - Zones of higher seismic hazard occupy about 20% of Russia’s territory, and 5% are characterized by extremely high hazard. These latter are, in...     

Subsatellite polygon for studying hydrophysical processes in the Black Sea shelf-slope zone

The first data on the creation of the subsatellite polygon on the Black Sea shelf and continental slope in the Gelendzhik area (designed in order to permanently monitor the state of the aquatic environment and biota) and the plans for maintaining and developing this polygon are presented. The autonomous measuring systems of the polygon in the composition of bottom stations with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), Aqualog robotic profilers, and thermo-chains on moored buoy stations should make it possible to regularly obtain hydrophysical, hydrochemical, and bio-optical data with a high spatial-time resolution and transmit these data to the coastal center on a real-time basis. These field data should be used to study the characteristics and formation mechanisms of the marine environment and biota variability, as well as the water-exchange processes in the shelf-deep basin system, ocean-atmosphere coupling, and many other processes. These data are used to calibrate the satellite measurements and verify the water circulation numerical simulation. It is assumed to use these data in order to warn about the hazardous natural phenomena and control the marine environment state and its variation under the action of anthropogenic and natural factors, including climatic trends. It is planned to use the polygon subsatellite monitoring methods and equipment in other coastal areas, including other Black Sea sectors, in order to create a unified system for monitoring the Black Sea shelf-slope zone.     

Submesoscale eddies at the caucasus Black Sea shelf and the mechanisms of their generation

The results of observations of submesoscale eddies (with a diameter of 2–8 km) on the narrow Black Sea shelf are presented. These observations were carried out in the Gelendzhik region in the autumn seasons of 2007–2008 using traditional and new methods of hydrophysical investigations. The mechanisms of generation of such eddies are discussed.     

Very high-frequency radar mapping of surface currents

An ocean surface current radar (OSCR) in the very high frequency (VHF) mode was deployed in South Florida Ocean Measurement Center (SFOMC) during the summer of 1999. During this period, a 29-d continuous time series of vector surface currents was acquired starting on 9 July 1999 and ending 7 August 1999. Over a 20-min sample interval, the VHF radar mapped coastal ocean currents over a 7.5 km × 8 km domain with a horizontal resolution of 250 m at 700 grid points. A total of 2078 snapshots of the two-dimensional current vectors were acquired during this time series and of these samples, only 69 samples (3.3%) were missing from the time series. During this period, complex surface circulation patterns were observed that included coherent, submesoscale vortices with diameters of 2 to 3 km inshore of the Florida Current. Comparisons to subsurface measurements from moored and ship-board acoustic Doppler current profiles revealed regression slopes of close to unity with biases ranging from 4 to 8 cm s^-1 between surface and subsurface measurements at 3 to 4 m beneath the surface. Correlation coefficients were 0.8 or above with phases of - 10 to - 20° suggestive of an anticyclonic veering of current with depth relative to the surface current. The radar-derived surface current field provided spatial context for an observational network using mooring-, ship- and autonomous underwater vehicle-sensor packages that were deployed at the SFOMC     

Early Eocene magmatism in the Sredinnyi Range,Kamchatka: Composition and geodynamic aspects

Migmatization and granite-forming processes were widespread in the southern Sredinnyi Range of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Early Eocene (at approximately 52 ± 2 Ma). The paper presents data on the composition and genesis of the Early Eocene granitoids. The Malka Rise contains both equigranular peraluminous garnet-bearing granites, on the one hand, and migmatites and tonalites and trondhjemites (TTG), on the other. The petrography and petrochemistry of most granites in the Malka Rise in the Sredinnyi Range (high SiO₂ concentrations, the presence of muscovite and garnet, the proportions of their Al saturation index ASI and SiO₂, FeO_t + MgO + TiO₂, and SiO₂, Al₂O₃/TiO₂, and CaO/Na₂O), and the composition of biotite in these rocks highlight their similarities with S-granites. The character of the REE patterns and the Sr and Y concentrations suggest that the granites and TTG were formed via the melting of sources of two types: metasediments and metabasites. The metasedimentary nature of the protolith of most of the granitoids also follows from similarities between the REE patterns of the granitoids and host metaterrigenous rocks of the Kolpakova and Kamchatka groups. The variations in the Rb/Ba and Rb/Sr ratios of the granites imply that their protoliths could be sedimentary rocks both depleted and enriched in pelite components. The facts that, along with S-granites, some of the granites are TTG, which likely had mafic protoliths, make the Early Eocene granites generally similar to S-granites of the Cordilleran type. The collision of the Achaivayam-Valaginskii ensimatic island arc with the Kamchatka margin of Eurasia started at 55–53 Ma and predated Early Eocene magmatism. In the course of this collision, arc complexes were obducted over continental marginal rocks, and this resulted in their rapid subsidence, crustal heating, magma generation, and the derivation of the granites, tonalites, and trondhjemites at 52 ± 2 Ma at temperatures of 645–815°C. This rapid heating (duirng no more than 3–5 Ma) required an additional heat source, which was likely the mantle. The latter heated the bottom of the crust at the detachment of the slab. The influx of mantle material resulted in intrusions of the norite-cortlandite association, which was coeval with the granites and was accompanied by Cu-Ni sulfide mineralization. The composition of the granitoids and data on the intrusions of the norite-cortlandite association suggest that mantle material was involved in Early Eocene syncollisional magma generation in Kamchatka. Newly obtained U-Pb zircon SHRIMP dates of the granitoids and recently published data on the age of the norite-cortlandite intrusions indicate that they are coeval and make it possible to recognize an Early Eocene phase of magmatic activity in Kamchatka.     

Experience of Simultaneous Measurements of Parameters of Currents and Hydrological Structure of Water from a Moving Vessel

Oceanology - At the Black Sea research site Gelendzhik of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO RAS), a technique has been established for joint current velocity profile measurements using towed...     

The Neoproterozoic–Phanerozoic section of the Anabar–Lena province: structural framework,geological model,and petroleum potential

Much work at A.A. Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (Novosibirsk) has been done to synthesize geological and geophysical data from the Siberian Arctic and Arctic shelf. Namely, seismic-geological modeling and petroleum potential assessment have been performed for the Neoproterozoic–Phanerozoic section of the Anabar–Lena province in the northern Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The results include seismic-geological division, a set of structural maps, and structural, paleotectonic, and facies analysis. The study shows that Riphean, Vendian, Cambrian, and Permian sequences are of interest in terms of petroleum potential; oil and gas may accumulate in traps of different types.