Complex Hydrocarbon Seepages Along a Short Segment of the North Anatolian Fault (Sea of Marmara, Turkey).

The Sea of Marmara represents an outstanding environment for geoscientists to investigate on complex hydrocarbon migration through faults. It is characterized by a large number of seeps located along the faults and the basin edge, very diverse in composition, origin and flux.

MARSITECruise in November 2014 corresponds to the latest expedition in a long series of scientific expeditions started in early 2000. During this multidisciplinary expedition, an ROV dive has been undertaken to study natural hydrocarbon emissions along the Ganos fault, a segment of the North Anatolian Faults (NAF) located at the westernmost part of the Sea of Marmara. The seafloor inspection revealed the presence of both oil and gas seeps. Six gas seeps have been sampled using an in-situ pressure-preservation device. The selection of the seeps to sample relied on both in situRaman analyses, followed by onboard measurement of the molecular and isotopic compositions of the collected gases. The gas flow-rate of each seep was also measured prior sampling.

The results show that the sampled gases are highly heterogeneous from one seep to another, with methane molecular composition and δ¹³C varying between 2 and 99 % -mol and 34 and 58.4 ‰, respectively. In this communication, the hydrocarbon origin and flow-rate are discussed, as well as the influence area of each source. Acoustic data combined with video recording from the ROV-dive have also been used to discuss their fate into the water column.

References

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Dupré, S., C. Scalabrin, L. Géli, P. Henry, C. Grall, J.-B. Tary, M. N. C¸agatay, and C. Imren (2010), the MARMESONET Scientific Party Team Widespread gas emissions in the Sea of Marmara in relation with the tectonic and sedimentary environments: Results from shipborne multibeam echosounder water column imagery (MARMESONET expedition, 2009), European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2010, 2–7 May, Geophysical Research Abstracts, pp. 9429–9422, Vienna, Austria.