Shallow-ocean methane leakage and degassing to the atmosphere: Triggered by offshore oil-gas and methane hydrate explorations

Both offshore oil-gas exploration and marine methane hydrate recovery can trigger massive CH4 release from seafloor. During upward transportation of CH4 plume through water column, CH4 is subjected to dissolution and microbial consumption despite the protection of hydrate and oil coating on bubbles...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Marine Science
Main Authors: Yong eZHANG, Weidong eZhai
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Subjects:
Methane
Hydrate
Coastal process
Offshore oil-gas exploration
seafloor leakage
Science
Q
General. Including nature conservation
geographical distribution
QH1-199.5
Methane hydrate
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00034
https://doaj.org/article/a35c77fe3f7747f289e91c0108718022
Description
Summary:Both offshore oil-gas exploration and marine methane hydrate recovery can trigger massive CH4 release from seafloor. During upward transportation of CH4 plume through water column, CH4 is subjected to dissolution and microbial consumption despite the protection of hydrate and oil coating on bubbles surface. The ultimate CH4 degassing to the atmosphere appears to be water-depth dependent. In shallow oceans with water depth less than 100 m, the natural or human-induced leakages or both lead to significant sea-to-air CH4 degassing from 3.00 to 1.36 × 105 μmol m-2 d-1. To quantify the human-perturbation induced CH4 degassing, the combination of top-down modeling and bottom-up calculations is essential due to spatial and temporal variability of diffusion and ebullition at water-air interface.

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