GAS-HYDRATE ACCUMULATIONS OF SUBMARINE MUD-VOLCANO TYPE

Abstract

The finding of gas-hydrates in breccia from a submarine mud volcano in the South Caspian deep-sea basin served as the basis for predicting the presence here of gas-hydrate accumulations of a special submarine mud-volcano type. The results of special surveys run in the southern Caspian in the summer of 1986 from the R/V Elm confirm the correctness of identifying such accumulations and allow them to be described in first approximation. Gas hydrates were detected and studied in the deposits of a mud volcano, revealed by seismoacoustic profiling. There also is indirect evidence of their presence on the flanks of two other presumed volcanoes.