Sonar Estimation of Methane Bubble Flux from Thawing Subsea Permafrost: A Case Study from the Laptev Sea Shelf

Seeps found offshore in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf may mark zones of degrading subsea permafrost and related destabilization of gas hydrates. Sonar surveys provide an effective tool for mapping seabed methane fluxes and monitoring subsea Arctic permafrost seepage. The paper presents an overview...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geosciences
Main Authors: Denis Chernykh, Vladimir Yusupov, Aleksandr Salomatin, Denis Kosmach, Natalia Shakhova, Elena Gershelis, Anton Konstantinov, Andrey Grinko, Evgeny Chuvilin, Oleg Dudarev, Andrey Koshurnikov, Igor Semiletov
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
active acoustic survey
seeps
permafrost
taliks
Laptev sea
East Siberian Arctic Shelf
Geology
QE1-996.5
Arctic
Laptev Sea
laptev
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10100411
https://doaj.org/article/a5ab5f7414b84aaab210b10f25a8ea75
Description
Summary:Seeps found offshore in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf may mark zones of degrading subsea permafrost and related destabilization of gas hydrates. Sonar surveys provide an effective tool for mapping seabed methane fluxes and monitoring subsea Arctic permafrost seepage. The paper presents an overview of existing approaches to sonar estimation of methane bubble flux from the sea floor to the water column and a new method for quantifying CH 4 ebullition. In the suggested method, the flux of methane bubbles is estimated from its response to insonification using the backscattering cross section. The method has demonstrated its efficiency in the case study of single- and multi-beam acoustic surveys of a large seep field on the Laptev Sea shelf.

Similar Items