Studies in Continental Margin Geology

"Studies in Continental Margin Geology" contains papers from a research conference co-sponsored by AAPG and the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics held in Galveston, Texas in 1981. Rapid advances in the understanding of continental margin geology were taking place during the time period, based on major improvements in the quality and availability of regional seismic surveys plus other fields such as organic geochemistry. For the first time it was becoming common to have a visual characterization of tectonic processes at significant depths below the surface. Twenty-seven papers are presented that deal with field investigations of continental margin structure and stratigraphy. The geographic areas of study are global in nature and many of the descriptive results are derived from modern seismic investigations in areas where that type of data had not previously been available in commercial publications. Fifteen of the papers focus on rifted margins and the other twelve concern convergent margins. Twelve papers are model investigations of a variety of margin environmental processes, related to subjects such as depositional environments, biostratigraphy, organic matter deposition, and oil and gas occurrences as a function of the plate tectonic setting. An additional nine papers model the thermal and mechanical tectonic processes involved in the structural development along continental margins.
Hydrates of Natural Gas in Continental Margins
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Published:January 01, 1982
Abstract
Natural gas hydrates in continental margin sediment can be inferred from the widespread occurrence of an anomalous seismic reflector which coincides with the predicted transition boundary at the base of the gas hydrate zone. Direct evidence of gas hydrates is provided by visual observations of sediments from the landward wall of the Mid-America Trench off Mexico and Guatemala, from the Blake Outer Ridge off the southeastern United States, and from the Black Sea in the U.S.S.R. Where solid gas hydrates have been sampled, the gas is composed mainly of methane accompanied by C02 and low concentrations of ethane and hydrocarbons of higher molecular weight. The molecular and isotopic composition of hydrocarbons indicates that most of the methane is of biological origin. The gas was probably produced by the bacterial alteration of organic matter buried in the sediment. Organic carbon contents of the sediment containing sampled gas hydrates are higher than the average organic carbon content of marine sediments. The main economic importance of gas hydrates may reside in their ability to serve as a cap under which free gas can collect. To be producible, however, such trapped gas must occur in porous and permeable reservoirs. Although gas hydrates are common along continental margins, the degree to which they are associated with significant reservoirs remains to be investigated.