Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2023, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5): 134-143.doi: 10.11978/2022204CSTR: 32234.14.2022204

• Marine Geology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

In situ quantification of oil-gas bubble seep flux from cold seeps at the seabed ― a case study of GC600 in the Gulf of Mexico

DI Pengfei1(), LI Niu1, CHEN Duofu2, Ian R MacDonald3   

  1. 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Ocean and Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
    2. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Hadal Science and Technology, College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
    3. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
  • Received:2022-09-28 Revised:2022-11-22 Online:2023-09-10 Published:2023-03-14
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(41676046); National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFC0307704); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province(2019A1515011809); Key Research and Development Plan of Hainan Province(ZDYF2021SHFZ060)

Abstract:

Natural cold seeps in the marine environment are important sources of organic compounds, such as methane and other greenhouse gases, to the ocean and atmosphere. Accurate quantification of methane bubbles flux at hydrocarbon seeps is therefore necessary to evaluate their influence on the global methane budget and climate change. A deep-sea high-definition video time-lapse camera was used to observe the gaseous and oily bubbles released from Mega Plume 2 vent in the GC600 cold seep in the Gulf of Mexico and obtained the video clips of continuous oil bubble release. A semi-automatic bubble counting algorithm was used to estimate the oil bubble number and release rates of Mega Plume 2 from video data. Image processing techniques were used to determine the bubble type (oily, mixed, and gaseous), and size distribution. The Mega Plume 2 vent at GC600 released a mixture of oily and gaseous bubbles with an average diameter of 2.56 mm ±1.01 mm at a rate of 80.25 bubbles·s-1. The oil-gas bubbles flux released from Mega Plume 2 is 177.7 m3·yr-1 (19.55~106.62 T·yr-1). However, the bubbles release rate was not correlated with tidal effects and may be linked with other factors, such as hydrate, pressurization of oil and gas in reservoirs, and differential loading of sedimentary layers. Only through long-term in-situ observations of cold seeps over a significant spatial extent, we will be able to adequately obtain their activity characteristics and released flux in marine environments.

Key words: underwater camera system, oil bubble, release rates, bubbles flux, Gulf of Mexico