How to evacuate 10 km3 of mud: saturate with gas and decrease the pressure!

The crest of the Absheron anticline in the South Caspian Basin at a few hundred meters below the present seafloor shows a subcircular depression about 8 km in diameter and 200 m deep, bounded by steep edges dipping 15° to 45° into it. The depression and the surrounding series are respectively filled and overlain by a regional mass-transport deposit (MTD) 150 m thick outside the depression and 300 m thick inside, composed mostly of extensional blocks. Geometric and stratigraphic analyses indicate that 150 m of initially deposited sediment were removed from a closed area after burial. Seismic evidence of shallow gas accumulations below the crater-like feature suggests that gas likely played a significant role in its development. The model proposed for the emplacement of the crater is that the gas-bearing cover of a shallow gas reservoir underwent exsolution when its overburden thinned during an episode of extensional slope failure. This resulted in loss of resistance to shear and evacuation of the gas-bearing sediment, likely at the shearing base of the failed mass. This evacuation feature is considered an example where the presence of gas locally governs the morphology of an MTD. The interpreted process shows a positive feedback between slope failure and loss of strength at the base of the resulting MTD.