The Response of Gas Hydrates to Tectonic Uplift

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Oluwunmi, Paul
Pecher, Ingo
Archer, Rosalind
Reagan, Matthew
Moridis, George
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2022
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Abstract

Pressure reduction following uplift may lead to dissociation of gas hydrates. The dynamics of hydrate dissociation in such settings, however, are poorly understood. We used TOUGH+HYDRATE to investigate the response of gas hydrates to an uplift of 0.009 myr- 1 over the last 8 kyrs, the approximate end of the postglacial sea-level rise. Geological parameters for the simulations are based on hydrate deposits from the Nankai Trough subduction zone. Our results suggest stabilisation from endothermic cooling, elevated pore pressure, and pore water freshening significantly slows hydrate dissociation such that the hydrate remains in place at its pre-uplift level. A shallower hydrate layer forms from upward-migrating gas when assuming moderate to high permeability (10- 15 and 10- 13 m2), while gas remains trapped for low permeability (10- 17 m2). In the latter case, we predict elevated pore pressure with potential implications for seafloor stability. Our findings suggest that following uplift, hydrates may exist outside the predicted regional gas hydrate stability field for thousands of years.

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Transport in Porous Media

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144

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3

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© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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Civil geotechnical engineering

Science & Technology

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Engineering, Chemical

Engineering

Tectonic uplift

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Oluwunmi, P; Pecher, I; Archer, R; Reagan, M; Moridis, G, The Response of Gas Hydrates to Tectonic Uplift, Transport in Porous Media, 2022, 144 (3), pp. 739-758

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