|
Supplementary material to “Two Decades of Community Research on Gas in Shallow Marine Sediments”
12 April 2011
Ira Leifer, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara
Martin Hovland, Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Tamara Zemskaya, Limnological Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
Citation:
Leifer, I., M. Hovland, and T. Zemskaya (2011), Two decades of community research on gas in shallow marine sediments, Eos Trans. AGU, 92(15), 128, doi:10.1029/2011EO150007. [Full Article (pdf)]
A multidisciplinary group of academics and industrial enthusiasts met at the tenth “Gas in Marine Sediments” conference on Lake Baikal's spectacular shores, sharing exciting new Baikal research with the broader scientific community (http://lin.irk.ru/gims10/). These bi/tri-annual meetings of “the Shallow Gas Group,” initiated in 1990, Edinburgh, allow discussions of the current state of the science.
Containing 20 % of the world's fresh surface water, Lake Baikal is the deepest and one of the cleanest lakes on Earth, and the only one containing hydrates in its sedimentarey infill. Lake Baikal is well-mixed and thermally very stable, with the upper 300 m homogeneous in spring and 3.0–3.2°C, oxygen-rich bottom waters [Shimaraev et al., 1993] that support a rich ecosystem. Winter lake freezing, allows ice expeditions.
Significant new discoveries have resulted from nearly 10 years of intensive mapping with multibeam echosounding, coring and biological sampling during expeditions aboard the R/V Vereshchagin and repeat deployments of the Russian manned submersibles, MIR1 and MIR2.
A. Lake Baikal Geology
Lake Baikal occupies an active rift basin, the Baikal Rift Zone, dating 25-30 Ma, with several regions of high heat flow and possibly buried hydrothermal activity. Thus, documentation of up to 10 m high and 50 m wide bitumen mounds on the lake floor (some actively seeping oil), and also massive, near-surface gas-hydrate deposits, is helping to unravel the underlying complexity leading to surface manifestations of deep lacustrine tectonism. At present, four lake-bottom mud-volcano provinces unite 14 mud volcanoes, including these bitumen mounds.
B. Hydrates
The first real indirect geophysical indication of hydrates was the discovery of a Bottom-Simulating Reflector (BSR) during a 1989 seismic survey [Hutchinson et al., 1992]. The first gas hydrates were retrieved during the deep-water international Baikal Drilling Project [Kuzmin et al., 2000] from 120 and 161-m subbottom depths. In 2000, gas hydrates were recovered from the surface sediments of the “Malenky” mud volcano during on-ice winter fieldwork [Klerkx et al., 2006; Matveeva et al., 2003] with further hydrates recovered in 2003 and 2004 from the “Bolshoy” and “K2” structures. Samples of coexisting hydrates of different cubic structures (CSI and CSII), composed of mixed microbial methane and deep thermogenic methane and ethane, were obtained from the K2 mud volcano [Kalmychkov et al., 2007]. In 2008, an unusual form of hydrate and bitumen coexistance was discovered in the bitumen mound field, “Gorevoy Utes” [Khlystov et al., 2009].
C. Sediments
Sediments near Baikal mud volcanoes [Khlystov, 2006; Klerkx et al., 2006] frequently contain mud breccia, which clearly differ in lithology and structure from normal diatomaceous and argillaceous Lake Baikal bottom sediments. Moreover, discharge area cores generally are gas saturated with disrupted surface layers [Khlystov, 2006]. The mud breccia consisted of more densely packed, drier mud clasts within viscous and oily clays containing gas hydrates. This composition suggests transport to the lakebed from greater depth through mud-volcanic channels, as also indicated, for example, by diatom occurrence from deeper strata.
Authigenic carbonates were encountered in some mud volcanoes [Krylov et al., 2008] even though Lake Baikal bottom sediments mostly are carbonate-free, due to the low alkalinity of the lake water (average concentrations of HCO3– of 66 mg l–1) and the calcite-undersaturation of the pore waters (see review in Callender and Granina [1997]). Minerals of the series, rhodochrosite-siderite occur abundantly, but only in close proximity to fluid-discharge areas.
D. Seep Bubble Plumes
As far back as the 17th century, European visitors reported gas bubbles from the Baikal lakebed. Scientific studies since the early 20th century have documented numerous seep bubble plumes (summarized in Granin and Granina [2002]). Recently, echosounder survyes investigated deep-water methane ebullition [Granin et al., 2010], which was documented in all basins of the lake (i.e. with and without hydrates), and was in some cases accompanied by oil release [Khlystov et al., 2007]. The “St. Petersburg” mud volcano (1400 m water depth) releases the tallest bubble plumes (950 m), which perturb the vertical temperature profile, leading to vertical mixing suggesting strong bubble plumes and methane transport. MIR surveys of the St. Petersburg mud volcano found thick, massive pure (no sediment includions) gas-hydrate layers with a clean lake ice appearance.
Giant ring structures (to 3-4 km diameter) appear just before ice-breakup on the surface of Lake Baikal, attributed to local upwellings [Granin, 2009]. They are proposed to result from large gas-expulsion events from lakebed sediments or floating gas hydrates. The atmospheric signature of methane release from Lake Baikal sediments has been identified in satellite data [Ying et al., 2010] and during shipborne surveys, with stronger signatures above areas of active seepage [Kapitanov et al., 2007].
E. Fauna, including seep-related species
During MIR dives, several new species were discovered by visual observations and sampling. They include nematodes, sponges, oligochaetes, molluscs, crustaceans, and giant flatworms. At least 10 animals are new species for science, among them two novel nematode species. A main peculiarity of the invertebrate communities inhabiting Baikal seep zones is a predominance of giant flatworms and the absence of bivalves. In marine seepage elsewhere, giant flatworms are absent, whereas bivalves are obligate.
Microbiological studies of the sediments from areas with gas and oil escape have revealed the presence of diverse microbial communities, occurring both inside and outside the bitumen structures [Zemskaya et al., 2010]. They consist of methanotrophic bacteria, fungi of the genus Phitium, eubacteria, and archaea. In sediments near oil seeps, single colorless sulfur bacteria of the genus Thioploca were observed. Total DNA pyrosequencing (methanogenomic analysis) of gas-hydrate-area microbes show that archaea prevail in subsurface sediments. Surprisingly, cyanobacteria (20%) dominate in subsurface sediments along with other photosynthetic bacteria - microorganisms typically found in surface waters. Methanogenesis also was present in the archaeal community of deep sediments. Almost 90% of the organisms represented archaeal lineages lacking cultured representatives, unique to Lake Baikal.
Special thanks for contributions from Marc De Batist, Nikolai Granin, and the GIMS10 scientific committee:
Antje Boetius, MPI Bremen, Germany aboetius@mpi-bremen.de
Marc De Batist, Renard Centre of Marine Geology, Ghent, Belgium marc.debatist@ugent.be
Gerhard Bohrman, MARUM, University Bremen, Germany gbohrmann@marum.de
Lyubomir Dimitrov, Institute of Oceanology, Varna, Bulgaria geos@io-bas.bg
Jean-Paul Foucher, IFREMER, Brest, France jfoucher@ifremer.fr
Soledad Garcia-Gil, University of VIGO, Spain sgil@uvigo.es
Martin Hovland, Statoil Stavanger, Norway mhovland@statoil.com
Michael Ivanov, Moscow State University, Russia mivanov@geol.msu.ru
Alan Judd, Newcastle, Great Britain, alan.judd@virgin.net
Michael Grachev, Limnological Institute, Irkutsk, Russia grachev@lin.irk.ru
Bo Barker Jørgensen, Center for Geomicrobiology, Aarhus University, Denmark bo.barker@biology.au.dk
Ira Leifer, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A. ira.leifer@bubbleology.com
Ian MacDonald, Tamu Corpus Christi, U.S.A. imacdonald@fsu.edu
Tatyana Matveeva, VNIIOceanology, St. Petersburg, Russia tv_matveeva@mail.ru
Anatoly Obzhirov, Pacific Oceanological Institute, Vladivostok, Russia obzhirov@poi.dvo.ru
Daniel Orange, Black Gold Energy, Jakarta, Indonesia dorange@nikoindonesia.com
Nikolay Pimenov, Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Moscow, Russia npimenov@mail.ru
Erwin Suess, IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany esuess@ifm-geomar.de
Hitoshi Shoji, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan shojihts@mail.kitami-it.ac.jp
John Woodside, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands jwoodside@alum.mit.edu
References
Callender, E., and L. Granina (1997), The chemical budget of Lake Baikal: A Review, Limnol. Oceanogr., 42(2), 373–378,
Granin, N., M. Makarov, K. Kucher, and R. Gnatovsky (2010), Gas seeps in Lake Baikal—detection, distribution, and implications for water column mixing, Geo-Marine Letters, 30(3), 399–409, doi:10.1007/s00367–010–0201–3.
Granin, N. G., and L. Granina (2002), Gas hydrates and gas venting in Lake Baikal, Russian Geology and Geophysics (Geologiya i Geofizika), 43(7), 589–597,
Granin, N. G. (2009), The ringed Baikal, Sciene First Hand, 2(23), 26–27,
Hutchinson, D. R., A. J. Golmshtok, L. P. Zonenshain, T. C. Moore, C. A. Scholz, and K. D. Klitgord (1992), Depositional and tectonic framework of the rift basins of Lake Baikal from multichannel seismic data, Geology, 20(7), 589–592, doi:10.1130/0091–7613.
Kalmychkov, G., M. Kuz'min, B. Pokrovskii, and S. Kostrova (2007), Oxygen isotopic composition in diatom algae frustules from Lake Baikal sediments: Annual mean temperature variations during the last 40 Ka, Doklady Earth Sciences, 413(1), 206–209, doi:10.1134/s1028334x07020158.
Kapitanov, V. A., I. S. Tyryshkin, N. P. Krivolutskii, Y. N. Ponomarev, M. De Batist, and R. Y. Gnatovsky (2007), Spatial distribution of methane over Lake Baikal surface, Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 66(4–5), 788–795, doi:10.1016/j.saa.2006.10.036.
Khlystov, O., A. Gorshkov, A. Egorov, T. Zemskaya, N. Granin, G. Kalmychkov, S. Vorob'eva, O. Pavlova, M. Yakup, M. Makarov, V. Moskvin, and M. Grachev (2007), Oil in the lake of world heritage, Doklady Earth Sciences, 415(1), 682–685, doi:10.1134/s1028334x07050042.
Khlystov, O., T. Zemskaya, T. Sitnikova, I. Mekhanikova, I. Kaigorodova, A. Gorshkov, O. Timoshkin, O. Shubenkova, S. Chernitsyna, A. Lomakina, A. Likhoshvai, A. Sagalevich, V. Moskvin, V. Peresypkin, N. Belyaev, M. Slipenchuk, A. Tulokhonov, and M. Grachev (2009), Bottom bituminous constructions and biota inhabiting them according to investigation of Lake Baikal with the <i>Mir</i> submersible, Doklady Earth Sciences, 429(1), 1333–1336, doi:10.1134/s1028334x09080200.
Khlystov, O. M. (2006), New findings of gas hydrates in the Baikal bottom sediments, Russian Geology and Geophysics (Geologiya i Geofizika), 47(8), 972–974 (979–981),
Klerkx, J., M. De Batist, J. Poort, R. Hus, P. Van Rensbergen, O. Khlystov, and N. G. Granin (2006), Tectonically controlled methane escape in Lake Baikal. Advances in the geological storage of carbon dioxide, NATO Science Series, IV. Earth Environ Sci, 65, 203–219,
Krylov, A., O. Khlystov, A. Hachikubo, H. Minami, Y. Nunokawa, H. Shoji, T. Zemskaya, L. Naudts, T. Pogodaeva, M. Kida, G. Kalmychkov, and J. Poort (2008), Isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon in subsurface sediments of gas hydrate-bearing mud volcanoes, Lake Baikal: implications for methane and carbonate origin, Geo-Marine Letters, 30(3), 427–437, doi:10.1007/s00367–010–0190–2.
Kuzmin, M. I., V. F. Geletiy, G. Kalmychkov, F. A. Kuznetsov, E. G. Larionov, A. Y. Manakov, Y. I. Mironov, B. S. Smoljakov, Y. A. Dyadin, A. D. Duchkov, N. M. Bazin, and G. M. Mahov (2000), The first discovery of the gas hydrates in the sediments of the Lake Baikal, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 912(1), 112–115, doi:10.1111/j.1749–6632.2000.tb06764.x.
Matveeva, T. V., L. L. Mazurenko, V. A. Soloviev, J. Klerkx, V. V. Kaulio, and E. M. Prasolov (2003), Gas hydrate accumulation in the subsurface sediments of Lake Baikal (Eastern Siberia), Geo-Marine Letters, 23(3), 289–299, doi:10.1007/s00367–003–0144–z.
Shimaraev, M. N., N. G. Granin, and A. A. Zhdanov (1993), Deep ventilation of Lake Baikal waters due to spring thermal bars, Limnology and Oceanography, 38(5), 1068–1072,
Ying, H., Z. Xiuying, J. Hong, and J. Jiaxin (2010), The distribution characteristics of atmospheric methane over Lake Baikal, Siberia by SCIAMACHY remotely sensed data, paper presented at Geoinformatics, 2010 18th International Conference on, 18–20 June 2010.
Zemskaya, T., T. Pogodaeva, O. Shubenkova, S. Сhernitsina, O. Dagurova, S. Buryukhaev, B. Namsaraev, O. Khlystov, A. Egorov, A. Krylov, and G. Kalmychkov (2010), Geochemical and microbiological characteristics of sediments near the Malenky mud volcano (Lake Baikal, Russia), with evidence of Archaea intermediate between the marine anaerobic methanotrophs ANME-2 and ANME-3, Geo-Marine Letters, 30(3), 411–425, doi:10.1007/s00367–010–0199–6.