RODRIGUES , Luiz Frederico

International audience

The Nile deep-sea fan is rich in fluid vents, including a Central Province of acoustically reflective patches that correspond at seafloor to fractured carbonate pavements hosting chemosynthetic ecosystems. The backscatter patches (BPs) have been referred to as pockmarks, but several studies have noted positive relief. We examine the BPs by...

Deep-sea fans have been proposed to act as carbon sinks, rapid deposition driving shallow methanogenesis to favor net storage within the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). Here, we present new evidence of widespread gas venting from the GHSZ on the upper Amazon deep-sea fan, together with analyses of the first samples of gas hydrates recovered...

Fluid migration strongly influences gas hydrate occurrences, increasing concentrations in proportion to gas supply. An upward flow of gas-rich fluids is also central to models proposed to account for the formation of venting features within the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), and for the presence or absence at its based of bottom simulating...