Geophysical Characterization

of Gas Hydrates

Edited by
Michael Riedel
Eleanor C. Willoughby
Satinder Chopra

SEG Geophysical Developments Series No. 14

Ian Jones, managing editor

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 ISBN 978-0-931830-41-9 (Series)
ISBN 978-1-56080-218-1 (Volume)

Copyright © 2010
Society of Exploration Geophysicists
P.O. Box 702740
Tulsa, OK U.S.A. 74170-2740

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transcribed in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without
prior written permission of the publisher.

Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Geophysical characterization of gas hydrates / edited by Michael Riedel,

Eleanor C. Willoughby, Satinder Chopra.
p. cm. — (SEG geophysical developments series; no. 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-56080-218-1 (volume) — ISBN 978-0-931830-41-9 (series)
1. Natural gas—Hydrates. 2. Natural gas—Geology. I. Riedel,
Michael. II. Willoughby, Eleanor C. (Eleanor Colleen), 1974- III. Chopra,
Satinder.
TN884.G46 2010
622’.18285—dc22
2010041643

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 Table of Contents

About the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Foreward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

Chapter 1: Gas Hydrates — Geophysical Exploration Techniques and Methods . . . 1

Michael Riedel, Eleanor C. Willoughby, and Satinder Chopra
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Impact of Gas Hydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Gas hydrates as potential future energy resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Gas hydrates — Greenhouse gas and climate change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The role of gas hydrates in geohazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Gas-hydrate Petroleum System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Stability of gas hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Source of gas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Availability of water and focused gas migration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Reservoir rocks and gas-hydrate morphologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Gas Production from Gas-hydrate Reservoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Gas-hydrate production simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Geophysical Exploration for Gas Hydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Seismic techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Electrical-resistivity methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Other potential-field methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Mapping the gas-hydrate stability field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Well-logging techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Other gas-hydrate characterization and quantification tools on sediment cores. . . . 11
Laboratory Measurements for Gas-hydrate Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Rock-physics Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 2: Motivations for the Geophysical Investigation of Gas Hydrates . . . . . . . 23

Ray Boswell and Tatsuo Saeki
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The gas-hydrate resource pyramid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

iii

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 iv Table of Contents

Gas-hydrate Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Section 1: Seismic Imaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 3: Introduction to Seismic Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Michael Riedel, Eleanor C. Willoughby, and Satinder Chopra
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Chapter 4: Seismic Indicators of Natural Gas Hydrate and

Underlying Free Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
G. D. Spence, R. R. Haacke, and R. D. Hyndman
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Elastic properties of sediments with gas hydrate or free gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Seismic velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Seismic attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Seismic anisotropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Seismic Data Collection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Surface source and receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Surface source and deep receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Deep source and deep receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Seismic Data Analysis Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Determination of P-wave velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Determination of S-wave velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Determination of seismic attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Determination of seismic anisotropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Indicators of Gas Hydrate and Free Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Characteristics of the bottom-simulating reflector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
High-amplitude reflections above BSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
High-amplitude reflections below BSR: Evidence for gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Regional amplitude blanking associated with gas hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Characteristics of vent-like fluid escape features and faults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Calculation of Gas-hydrate and Free-gas Concentrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Reference no-hydrate, no-gas velocity profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Conversion of velocity increase to gas-hydrate concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Distribution and Concentration of Gas Hydrate and Free Gas: Examples . . . . . . . . . . 58
Southwest Japan (Nankai Trough) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Cascadia margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Gulf of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Blake Ridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Storegga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Outstanding Questions and Avenues for Further Seismic Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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 Table of Contents v

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 5: Seismic AVO for Gas-hydrate-related Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Marc-André P. Chen, Michael Riedel, and Stan E. Dosso
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
AVO Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Zoeppritz equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Shuey approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Marine Gas-hydrate AVO: A Forward Modeling Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Synthetic AVO curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Data processing considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Comparison of reported results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Shortcomings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Marine Gas Hydrate: A Bayesian Approach to BSR–AVO Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Bayesian inversion theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Synthetic study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Inversion of a northern Cascadia gas-hydrate BSR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Permafrost Gas Hydrate: Bayesian AVO Inversion for Sediments
at the Mallik Well Site — A Synthetic Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Model design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Synthetic models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Interpretation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Chapter 6: Analysis of Gas-hydrate Provinces by Ocean-bottom

Seismic Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
T. A. Minshull, K. E. Louden, and S. M. Dean
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Elastic properties of hydrate-bearing sediments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Ocean-bottom seismic methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Experiment Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
OBS versus OBC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Sources and receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Spatial sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Layout of shooting tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Coupling and shear waves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

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 vi Table of Contents

Methods of Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Data processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Traveltime inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
S-wave analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Waveform analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Future Developments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Chapter 7: Inversion of Seismic Data for Elastic Parameters: A Tool for

Gas-hydrate Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
M. Riedel, M. W. Lee, and G. Bellefleur
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Poststack Acoustic Impedance Inversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Example of band-limited AI inversion of Mallik 3D seismic data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
AVO Intercept-gradient Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Elastic Impedance Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Definition of EI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
EI-inversion schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
EI inversion in the presence of low S-wave velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Poststack EI-inversion — Blake Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Full Waveform Prestack Inversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Chapter 8: Vertical Seismic Profiles through Gas-hydrate-bearing Sediments . . . . 121

Ingo A. Pecher, Bernd Milkereit, Akio Sakai, Mrinal K. Sen, Nathan L.
Bangs, and Jun-Wei Huang
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
VSPs for gas hydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Ocean Drilling Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ODP Leg 146. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ODP Leg 164, Blake Ridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
ODP Leg 204, Hydrate Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Mallik – Permafrost Gas Hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Mallik 2L-38 (1998) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Mallik 3L-38 (2002) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Other Recent Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Nankai Trough Exploratory Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

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Gulf of Mexico Joint Industry Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

IODP Expedition 311 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Hot Ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Discussion and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Section 2: Geophysical Imaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 9: Introduction to Geophysical Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Eleanor C. Willoughby, Michael Riedel, and Satinder Chopra
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Chapter 10: Marine Controlled-source Electromagnetics and

the Assessment of Seafloor Gas Hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
R. N. Edwards, K. Schwalenberg, Eleanor C. Willoughby, R. Mir, and Carsten Scholl
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Controlled-source electromagnetics — The rationale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Controlled-source EM Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
CSEM — An approach from dimensional analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Electric dipole — dipole methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Resistivity and Archie’s law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
CSEM study in northern Cascadia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Experimental apparatus and methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Data interpretation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Assessment of gas hydrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Overview of CSEM gas hydrate characterization worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Chapter 11: Resolving an Onshore Gas-hydrate Layer with

Long-offset Transient Electromagnetics (LOTEM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Carsten Scholl
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The Geological Setting at Mallik. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
The LOTEM Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Resolution of the 1D model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
More Complex Resistivity Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
A heterogeneous hydrate layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Large scale resistivity structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Survey Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

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Conclusions and Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 12: Seafloor Compliance Imaging of Marine Gas-hydrate Deposits . . . . . 179

E. C. Willoughby, K. Latychev, R. N. Edwards, K. Schwalenberg,
and R. D. Hyndman
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Theory of Seafloor Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Instrumentation and Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Data Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
3D numerical finite-difference models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Ongoing Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Appendix – The Theory of Seafloor Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Basic Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The general equations of motion for a solid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The wave equations for a uniform solid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The uniform liquid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Gravity Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The dispersion relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
The static approximation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Interaction with a lower half-space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The dispersion relationship on a compliant seafloor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Effects of pore fluid flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Chapter 13: Gas hydrates and Magnetism: Surveying and Diagenetic Analysis . . . 197
L. Esteban, T. S. Hamilton, R. J. Enkin, C. Lowe, and I. Novosel
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Magnetism, Magnetic Minerals, and Diagenetic Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Magnetism and Gas Hydrates in a Permafrost Setting: Mallik and
the Mackenzie Delta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Aeromagnetic and ground magnetic surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Magnetic properties of the Mallik cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Petrographic and geochemical observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Discussion of arctic gas-hydrate magnetism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Magnetism and Gas Hydrates in the Marine Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Magnetic properties of Cascadia margin cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Petrographic and geochemical observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

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Discussion of marine gas-hydrate magnetism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Synthesis and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Chapter 14: Infrared Imaging of Gas-hydrate-bearing Cores:

State of the Art and Future Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Philip Long, Melanie Holland, Peter Schultheiss, Michael Riedel,
Jill Weinberger, Anne Tréhu, and Herbert Schaef
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Introduction and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
IR Thermal Imaging Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Methods and Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
IR thermal imaging of sediment cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Development of IR thermal imaging track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Routine IR imaging of sediment core in plastic liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Direct IR Imaging of Sediment Surfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
IR imaging of cut core ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
IR imaging of longitudinally split or opened whole-round cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Time-lapse imaging of sediment core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Data Analysis and Typical Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Qualitative gas-hydrate distribution and morphological analysis from
thermal data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Quantitative estimates of gas-hydrate abundance from thermal data . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Linkage to pore water freshening data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Thermal Imaging as a Guide for Subsampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Constraining the extent of temperature change in cores during recovery. . . . . . . . 228
Problems and Issues with Thermal IR Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Future Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Full circumference imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Automated detection and virtual removal of voids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Automated generation of downcore temperature plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Real-time estimation of gas-hydrate abundance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Use of hyperspectral IR cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Section 3: Borehole Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Chapter 15: Introduction to Borehole Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Michael Riedel, Eleanor C. Willoughby, and Satinder Chopra
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

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Chapter 16: Evaluation of Natural Gas-hydrate Systems Using

Borehole Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
David S. Goldberg, Robert L. Kleinberg, Jill L. Weinberger,
Alberto Malinverno, Pat J. McLellan, and Timothy S. Collett
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Wireline logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Logging while drilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Seismic–log-core data integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Field Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Scientific ocean drilling and logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Resource-driven ocean drilling and logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Permafrost drilling and logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Porosity logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Resistivity logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Electromagnetic logs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
NMR logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Sonic logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Borehole imaging tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Chapter 17: Borehole Pressure Coring Techniques and Core Analysis

at In Situ Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Peter Schultheiss, Melanie Holland, and Frank Rack
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Introduction: Why Take Pressure Cores?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Wireline Pressure Coring Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
PCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
PTCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
HYACINTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Recovering Gas Hydrate in Pressure Cores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Staying in the stability zone: Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Staying in the stability zone: Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Pressure and temperature changes during a typical deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Nondestructive Analysis of Pressure Cores: Gas Hydrate Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Nondestructive measurements on HYACINTH cores. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Nondestructive measurements on PCS cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Depressurization Analysis of Pressure Cores: Gas Hydrate Quantification . . . . . . . . 271
Further Analysis and Subsampling Under Pressure: The Future of
Pressure Coring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

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Chapter 18: Seafloor Marine Heat Flux Measurements and Estimation of

Heat Flux from Seismic Observations of Bottom Simulating Reflectors . . . . . . . . . 279
Heinrich W. Villinger, Anne M. Tréhu, and Ingo Grevemeyer
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Theoretical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
General introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Heat flux in an infinite cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Downward propagation of a temperature variation at the surface
of an infinite half-space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Corrections due to sedimentation/erosion or seafloor topography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Seafloor Heat Flux Measurement Technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Introduction and operational considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Determination of thermal conductivity in situ and on cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Data Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Extrapolation of temperature measurements to derive in situ temperature
and thermal conductivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Interpretation of departures from a linear gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Heat Flux Determinations in Boreholes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Tools for measuring in situ sediment temperatures in boreholes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Distributed temperature sensors (DTS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Analysis of borehole temperature data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Results from borehole temperature measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Estimation of Heat Flux from BSR Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Outline of the procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Seafloor temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Gas hydrate stability curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Thermal conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Discussion of errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Section 4: Laboratory Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Chapter 19: Introduction of Laboratory Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Michael Riedel, Eleanor C. Willoughby, and Satinder Chopra
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Chapter 20: Round Table: Rock Physics of a Gas-hydrate Reservoir . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Jack Dvorkin, Amos Nur, Richard Uden, and Turhan Taner
Reprinted from The Leading Edge, 22, 842–847
Rock Physics Models in Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

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An Effective-Medium Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Putting Numbers into the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Hydrate in a Pseudosection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Hydrate Saturation from Impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Caveats Due to Seismic Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Chapter 21: Velocity and Resistivity Measurements of Artificial

Gas-hydrate-bearing sediment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Erik Spangenberg and Johannes Kulenkampff
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Formation of Pore Space Hydrate from Methane Dissolved in Water . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Description of experiment and sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Determination of Hydrate Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Petrophysical Properties as Function of Hydrate Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Chapter 22: Laboratory Measurements on Fresh Terrestrial

Gas-hydrate-bearing Sediment Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Johannes Kulenkampff and Erik Spangenberg
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Coring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Sample storage and preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Measuring system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Chapter 23: Geophysical Properties and Dynamic Response of Methane-

hydrate-bearing Sediments to Hydrate Formation and Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . 329
Jinhai Yang and Bahman Tohidi
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Test Set-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Dynamic response of P-wave velocity to methane-hydrate
formation and dissociation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

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Effect of clays on geophysical properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Dynamic response of hydrate-bearing sediments to hydrate
dissociation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Chapter 24: A Resonant Column Study of the Seismic Properties of

Methane-hydrate-bearing Sand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
A. I. Best, J. A. Priest, and C. R. I. Clayton
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Design features of the gas-hydrates resonant column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Resonant column theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Resonant column calibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Preparation of methane-hydrate-sand specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Experimental procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Dependence on velocity and attenuation on hydrate saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Chapter 25: Wave Theory, Simulation, and Determination of Gas-hydrate

Content in Sediments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
José M. Carcione, Davide Gei, and Giuliana Rossi
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Differential Equations of Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Velocity-stress formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Seismic Velocities and Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Seismic velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Comparison of the three-phase Biot theory with other theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Bottom-simulating Reflector — AVA Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Numerical Algorithm for Wave Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Velocity and Attenuation Tomographic Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Estimation of Gas-hydrate Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Mallik 2L-38 research well, Mackenzie Delta, Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Norwegian-Svalbard continental margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Conservation of momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Stress-strain relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

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Seismic velocities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Chapter 26: The Impact of Hydrate Saturation on the Mechanical,

Electrical, and Thermal Properties of Hydrate-bearing Sand, Silts, and Clay . . . . 373
J. Carlos Santamarina and Carolyn Ruppel
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Soils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Hydrate formation and hydrate former . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Laboratory cells and test devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Results and Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Small strain stiffness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
High strain stiffness and strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Electrical conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Permittivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Thermal conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Appendix A: Mathematical notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

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 About the Editors

Michael Riedel graduated from the University of Victoria in September

2001 with a Ph.D. in geophysics and joined the Geological Survey of Can-
ada as a postdoctorate research fellow the same year. The first two major
projects he participated in were the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg
204 (Gas Hydrates at the Southern Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon) and the
2002 Gas Hydrate Research Drilling at the Mallik Site, Mackenzie Delta,
NWT. In 2005, he was the cochief scientist of the Integrated Ocean Drilling
Program (IODP) Expedition 311 on the northern Cascadia Margin. He then
joined the Earth and Planetary Science Department at McGill University in
2006, where he held the T. H. Clark Chair in Sedimentary and Petroleum
Geology. Over the next three years, he participated as cochief scientist in two additional major gas
hydrate drilling expeditions (India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition in 2006 and Korea
Ulleung Basin Gas Hydrate Expedition in 2007). Riedel rejoined the Geological Survey of Canada
in Sidney, British Columbia, in 2009. He currently holds an adjunct professor status at the Univer-
sity of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
His research interests and expertise are focused in geophysical characterization of gas-hydrate
deposits using seismic and logging techniques, drilling and coring, as well as seismic data acquisi-
tion and processing.

Eleanor C. Willoughby is a research associate in the Marine Geophysics

Group at the University of Toronto. Her research has focused on the de-
velopment of new geophysical imaging technology, in particular, systems
which can help evaluate marine gas hydrate deposits. More specifically,
Willoughby has worked on the application of two new techniques used to
identify marine gas hydrates: seafloor compliance and controlled-source
electromagnetics (CSEM). Recently, she has been part of a team who de-
signed, built, and deployed both seafloor compliance and CSEM systems
on the NEPTUNE Canada cabled seafloor observatory, to monitor the gas
hydrate-associated Bullseye cold vent, offshore Vancouver Island. Current
work focuses on the research and development of a deep-towed multi receiver marine CSEM array,
with real-time data acquisition and control.
Willoughby obtained her B.Sc. (honors) in physics in 1996, her M.Sc. in 1998, and her
Ph.D. in physics (marine geophysics) in 2003 all from the University of Toronto. Subsequently,
she joined the Geological Survey of Canada as a visiting fellow at the Pacific Geoscience Centre
for three years before returning to Toronto. She served as a member of the Expert Panel on Gas
Hydrates for the Council of Canadian Academies. Her other research interests include investigating
the relationship between seismicity and slip on oceanic transform faults and the application of time-
domain electromagnetic methods to image subpermafrost gas-hydrate deposits.

xv

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 xvi About the Editors

Satinder Chopra received M.Sc. and M.Phil. degrees in physics from

Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India. He joined the Oil and Natural
Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) of India in 1984 and served there until
1997. In 1998, he joined CTC Pulsonic at Calgary, which later became
Scott Pickford and Core Laboratories Reservoir Technologies. Currently, he
is working as chief geophysicist (Reservoir), at Arcis Corporation, Calgary.
In the last 26 years, Chopra has worked in regular seismic processing and
interactive interpretation but has spent more time in special processing of
seismic data involving seismic attributes including coherence, curvature and
texture attributes, seismic inversion, AVO, VSP processing, and frequency
enhancement of seismic data. His research interests focus on techniques that are aimed at character-
ization of reservoirs. He has published five books and more than 190 papers and abstracts and likes
to make presentations at any beckoning opportunity. He is the chief editor of the CSEG Recorder,
a past member of The Leading Edge Editorial Board, and a former chairman of the SEG Publica-
tions Committee.
He received several awards at ONGC and more recently has received the Best Oral Presentation
Award for his paper titled “Delineating stratigraphic features via cross-plotting of seismic discon-
tinuity attributes and their volume visualization,” presented at the 2010 AAPG Annual Convention
held in New Orleans; the Top 10 Paper Award for his poster titled “Extracting meaningful infor-
mation from seismic attributes,” presented at the 2009 AAPG Annual Convention held in Denver;
the Best Poster Award for his paper titled “Seismic attributes for fault/fracture characterization,”
presented at the 2008 SEG Convention held in Las Vegas; the Best Paper Award for his paper titled
“Curvature and iconic coherence attributes adding value to 3D seismic data interpretation,” pre-
sented at the CSEG Technical Luncheon, Calgary, in January 2007; and the 2005 CSEG Meritorious
Services Award. He and his colleagues have received the CSEG Best Poster Awards in successive
years from 2002 to 2005.
He is a member of SEG; CSEG; CSPG; Canadian Heavy Oil Association; EAGE; AAPG; As-
sociation of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta; and Texas Board of
Professional Geoscientists.

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 Foreword
Field study of natural gas hydrates is new in geoscience, as
it is in commercial interest. It is only some 50 years since
the early recognition of hydrate in hydrocarbon exploration
wells in permafrost areas of northern Russia and the detec-
tion of hydrate-related marine bottom-simulating reflectors
(BSRs) off eastern United States. Early work was driven
mainly by scientific interest, including the role of hydrate
in climate change, but most of the recent substantial ex-
penditures have come from the energy potential. Detection,
mapping, and characterization of natural hydrate occur-
rences by seismic and other methods have come a long
way but still do not have the refinement of the techniques
used in the hydrocarbon exploration industry. The early
field surveys and studies tended to be of the type: “let’s try
everything and see what we learn.” Some were surprisingly
useful, like electrical resistivity; others not so. Integration
of the results of several types of surveys has been espe-
cially valuable. Much early effort was directed at “direct
detection” of hydrate based on the substantial difference in
physical properties of hydrate compared to sediment pore
fluid, especially the high seismic velocity. This approach
has had some success in field surveys but has been of most
value in the analysis of downhole logs, especially where
several parameters are available. The associated downhole
logs provide a critical complement to field surveys through
calibration (“ground truth”) by way of core physical prop-
erty and composition analyses. Laboratory studies have
been important for determining the changes in physical
properties of hydrate under different conditions and of sed-
iments containing varying amounts of pore-filling hydrate.
The effects on field data of larger scale hydrate in nodules,
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02181_SEG_GH_FM.indd xvii
veins, and more massive occurrences are not yet well deter-
mined. Along with the indicators based on hydrate physical
properties, there has been increasing understanding, based
mainly on field geophysical surveys, of the processes that
form gas hydrate and of the structures that host hydrate.
These include large structures in permafrost sedimentary
basins, regional marine hydrate just above BSRs, hydrate
associated with marine “vent” or “plume” structures, and
hydrate contained in fracture networks. We are now begin-
ning to understand the geophysical characteristics of each
of these. Also, initial production proposals and testing have
suggested that sand-hosted hydrate may be most amenable
to gas extraction, so there is increasing focus on sand detec-
tion by geophysical methods as well as through structural
indicators. Some of us had a simplistic view of hydrate oc-
currences and their detection, but we now recognize that
they are at least as complex as for conventional hydrocar-
bons. We still have a long way to go; much is yet to be
learned. However, this volume represents a major achieve-
ment in consolidating the considerable current geophysical
knowledge of what is required for hydrate detection and
mapping. If not a complete recipe, we at least have a clear
description of the most valuable survey and study tools and
their uses, along with the basic data processing methods
and interpretations. Congratulations to the authors and to
the editors for this important milestone.
Roy Hyndman
September 2010
Pacific Geoscience Centre,
Geological Survey of Canada
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 Acknowledgments
This volume is a compilation of individual scientific
papers detailing many state-of-the-art geophysical
exploration techniques and methods currently used in
gas-hydrate research, written by leading experts in the
field. The techniques covered here are wide-ranging:
from a spectrum of seismic applications, geophysical im-
aging methods (including electrical resistivity and other
potential-field methods), borehole techniques, to the de-
termination of physical properties through laboratory
studies and applications, as well as theoretical modelling
approaches. This book cannot encompass every aspect of
gas-hydrate research (which range from microbiological
studies to advanced well-log interpretation techniques and
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02181_SEG_GH_FM.indd xviii
from engineering and flow assurance to assessing meth-
ane hydrates as a component of climate change); rather,
it should be seen as a handbook or tool box for geophysi-
cists and geologists who are in the business of gas-hydrate
research and development.
We would like to first thank the Society of Explora-
tion Geophysicists for the opportunity to create this book.
Without the tremendous help of the SEG staff, it would not
have been possible. We also want to thank all external re-
viewers for their considered and insightful reviews. Last,
but not least, we sincerely thank all of the authors for their
individual contributions, patience and perseverance over
the duration of the project.
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