Tectonic settings play a large role in the development of fluid flow pathways for gas migrating through sedimentary strata. Many gas hydrate systems worldwide are located on either passive continental margins, in large contourite deposits on the slopes of passive continental margins or on subduction margins. The Svyatogor Ridge, however, located at the northwestern flank of the Knipovich Ridge and ...

Due to climate change, decreasing ice cover and increasing industrial activities, Arctic marine ecosystems are expected to face higher levels of anthropogenic stress. To sustain healthy and productive ocean ecosystems, it is imperative to build baseline data to assess future changes. Herein, a natural oil seep site offshore western Svalbard (Prins Karls Forland, PKF, 80–100 m water depth), discovered ...

Cold-seep systems have a unique geo-ecological significance in the deep-sea environment. They impact the variability of present-day submarine sedimentary environments, affecting the evolution of the landscape over time and creating a variety of submarine landforms, one of which is Mud Volcanoes (MVs). MVs are submarine landforms form due extrusion of mud, fluids, and gas, mainly methane, from deeper ...

The location and stability of gas hydrates in the SW Barents Sea is poorly constrained due to complex geological, geochemical, and geophysical conditions, including poor controls on regional heat flow and gas chemistry. Understanding the stability of gas hydrates in this region is important, as recent studies suggest destabilizing hydrates may lead to methane discharge into the ocean and possibly ...

Submarine landslides are prevalent on the modern-day seafloor, yet an elusive problem is constraining the timing of past slope failure. We present a novel age-dating technique based on perturbations to underlying gas hydrate stability caused by slide-impacted seafloor changes. Using three-dimensional (3-D) seismic data, we mapped an irregular bottom simulating reflection (BSR) underneath a submarine ...

Joint analysis of electrical resistivity and seismic velocity data is primarily used to detect the presence of gas hydrate‐filled faults and fractures. In this study, we present a novel approach to infer the occurrence of structurally‐controlled gas hydrate accumulations using azimuthal seismic velocity analysis. We perform this analysis using ocean‐bottom seismic (OBS) data at two sites on Vestnesa ...

Continued warming of the Arctic Ocean in coming decades is projected to trigger the release of teragrams (1 Tg = 106 tons) of methane from thawing subsea permafrost on shallow continental shelves and dissociation of methane hydrate on upper continental slopes. On the shallow shelves (<100 m water depth), methane released from the seafloor may reach the atmosphere and potentially amplify global ...

We have estimated the seismic attenuation in gas hydrate and free-gas-bearing sediments from high-resolution P-cable 3D seismic data from the Vestnesa Ridge on the Arctic continental margin of Svalbard. P-cable data have a broad bandwidth (20–300 Hz), which is extremely advantageous in estimating seismic attenuation in a medium. The seismic quality factor (Q), the inverse of seismic attenuation, ...

In 2014, the discovery of seafloor mounds leaking methane gas into the water column in the northwestern Barents Sea became the first to document the existence of non‐permafrost related gas hydrate pingos (GHP) on the Eurasian Arctic shelf. The discovered site is given attention because the gas hydrates occur close to the upper limit of the gas hydrate stability, thus may be vulnerable to climatic ...