Gas Hydrate and Free Gas Concentrations in Two Sites inside the Chilean Margin (Itata and Valdivia Offshores)

Vargas-Cordero Iván, Tinivella Umberta and Villar-Muñoz Lucía
Additional contact information
Vargas-Cordero Iván: Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Andres Bello (UNAB), Quillota 980, 2531015 Viña del Mar, Chile
Tinivella Umberta: Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta 42C, 34010 Trieste, Italy
Villar-Muñoz Lucía: GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Wischhofstr 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Two sectors, Itata and Valdivia, which are located in the Chilean margin were analysed by using seismic data with the main purpose to characterize the gas hydrate concentration. Strong lateral velocity variations are recognised, showing a maximum value in Valdivia offshore (2380 ms ?1 above the BSR) and a minimum value in the Itata offshore (1380 m·s ?1 below the BSR). In both of the sectors, the maximum hydrate concentration reaches 17% of total volume, while the maximum free gas concentration is located Valdivia offshore (0.6% of total volume) in correspondence of an uplift sector. In the Itata offshore, the geothermal gradient that is estimated is variable and ranges from 32 °C·km ?1 to 87 °C·km ?1 , while in Valdivia offshore it is uniform and about 35 °C·km ?1 . When considering both sites, the highest hydrate concentration is located in the accretionary prism (Valdivia offshore) and highest free gas concentration is distributed upwards, which may be considered as a natural pathway for lateral fluid migration. The results that are presented here contribute to the global knowledge of the relationship between hydrate/free gas presence and tectonic features, such as faults and folds, and furnishes a piece of the regional hydrate potentiality Chile offshore.

Keywords: gas hydrate; BSR; seismic velocity; gas-phase concentration; pre-stack depth migration; Chilean margin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2154/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2154/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:12:p:2154-:d:123202

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().