Trehu, Anne M. (2005): Subsurface temperatures beneath southern Hydrate Ridge. Texas A&M University, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, TX, United States, In: Trehu, Anne M., Bohrmann, Gerhard, Torres, Marta E., Rack, Frank R., Bangs, Nathan L., Barr, Samantha R., Borowski, Walter S., Claypool, George E., Collett, Timothy S., Delwiche, Mark E., Dickens, Gerald R., Goldberg, David S., Gracia, Eulalia, Guerin, Gilles, Holland, Melanie, Johnson, Joel E., Lee, Young-Joo, Liu, Char-Shine, Long, Philip E., Milkov, Alexei V., Riedel, Michael, Schultheiss, Peter, Su Xin, Teichert, Barbara, Tomaru, Hitoshi, Vanneste, Maarten, Watanabe, Mahito, Weinberger, Jill L., Boetius, Antje, Brockman, Fred J., Deyhle, Annette, Fehn, Udo, Flemings, Peter B., Girguis, Peter R., Heesemann, Martin, Joye, Samantha B., Lorenson, Thomas D., Mills, Christopher T., Musgrave, Robert J., Popa, Radu, Ussler, Bill, Wilkes, Heinz, Winckler, Gisela, Winters, William J., Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program; scientific results; drilling gas hydrates on Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia continental margin; covering Leg 204 of the cruises of the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution; Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Sites 1244-1252; 7 July-2 September 2002, 204, georefid:2007-035097

Abstract:
During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 204, 80 in situ measurements of subseafloor temperature were made; 68 of these showed good frictional pulses on insertion and extraction from the seafloor and were used to constrain the subsurface temperature. Considering uncertainties from various sources, uncertainties in the in situ temperatures are estimated to generally be less than + or -0.3 degrees C. The data are consistent with a purely conductive temperature regime at all sites, and there is no resolvable difference in heat flow between sites on the flanks of southern Hydrate Ridge and sites near the summit, where other data indicate that free gas is venting into the ocean, gas hydrate is forming rapidly, and free gas and gas hydrate coexist in the sediments. We interpret this apparent paradox to indicate that the aqueous fluid flow is decoupled from free gas flow and that advection of free gas does not have a significant effect on the temperature field. The temperature data, which include several measurements within a few meters of the predicted base of the methane hydrate stability field (calculated for the measured pore water salinity at each site) also indicate that the bottom-simulating reflection (BSR) corresponds to the base of gas hydrate stability within measurement uncertainties, although a systematic shallowing of the BSR by as much as 10 m is possible. The heat flow indicated by the Leg 204 measurements and the regional BSR depth is significantly lower than the heat flow predicted based on the age of the subducting plate and the thickness of the accretionary complex. Several measurements made near the summit at depths shallower than 60 meters below seafloor show anomalous behavior consistent with low in situ thermal conductivity, possibly because of the presence of free gas and/or massive gas hydrate in these sediments.
Coverage:
West: -125.0900 East: -125.0400 North: 44.3500 South: 44.3400
Relations:
Expedition: 204
Supplemental Information:
Available only on CD-ROM in PDF format and on the Web in PDF or HTML
Data access:
Provider: SEDIS Publication Catalogue
Data set link: http://sedis.iodp.org/pub-catalogue/index.php?id=10.2973/odp.proc.sr.204.114.2006 (c.f. for more detailed metadata)
Data download: application/pdf
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