Keiichi Ishizu

Abstract Near-seafloor concentrated gas hydrates (GHs) containing large amounts of methane have been identified at various gas chimney sites. Although understanding the spatial distribution of GHs is fundamental for assessing their dissociation impact on aggravating global warming and resource potential, the spatial distribution of GHs within gas chimneys remains unclear. Here, we estimate the subseafloor distribution of GHs at a gas chimney site in the Japan Sea using marine electrical resistivity tomography data. The resulting two-dimensional subseafloor resistivity structure shows high anomalies (10–100 Ωm) within seismically inferred gas chimneys. As the resistivity anomalies are aligned with high amplitude seismic reflections and core positions recovering GHs, we interpret the resistivity anomalies are near-seafloor concentrated GH deposits. We also detect various distribution patterns of the high resistivity anomalies including 100-m wide and 40-m thick anomaly near the seafloor and 500-m wide anomaly buried 50 m below the seafloor, suggesting that GHs are heterogeneously distributed. Therefore, considering such heterogeneous GH distribution within gas chimneys is critical for in-depth assessments of GH environmental impacts and energy resources.

Deep-sea massive sulfide deposits formed by hydrothermal fluid circulation are potential metal resources. They can exist not only as mound manifestations on the seafloor (seafloor massive sulfides) but also as embedded anomalies buried beneath the seafloor (embedded massive sulfides). The distribution of embedded massive sulfides is largely unknown, despite their expected high economic value. Recent drilling surveys have revealed a complex model suggesting embedded massive sulfides coexist beneath seafloor massive sulfides. In the coexisting case, geophysical methods are required to distinguish and map both seafloor and embedded massive sulfides for accurate resource estimation. Marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods are useful for mapping massive sulfides as they exhibit higher electrical conductivity compared to the surrounding host rock. However, CSEM applications capable of distinguishing and mapping both massive sulfides are lacking. We employ a towed electric dipole transmitter with two types of receivers: stationary ocean bottom electric (OBE) and short-offset towed receivers. This combination utilizes differences in sensitivity: the towed receiver data are sensitive to seafloor massive sulfides and the stationary OBE receiver data are sensitive to embedded massive sulfides. Our synthetic data example demonstrates that the combined inversion of towed and OBE data can recover resistivities and positions of both massive sulfides more accurately than the existing inversion methods using individual applications. We perform the combined inversion of measured CSEM data obtained from the middle Okinawa Trough. The inversion models demonstrate that a combined inversion can map the location and shape of embedded massive sulfides identified during drilling more accurately than the inversion of individual datasets.

A 3D marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) survey for mapping hydrocarbons uses dozens of ocean-bottom electric (OBE) receivers deployed in a grid pattern and several transmitter towlines. This study considers seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) exploration, and the horizontal survey scale of SMS is a few kilometers, which is small compared with hydrocarbon surveys of tens of kilometers. If we apply a 3D CSEM survey using a receiver deployment on grids to map SMS, high survey costs will be incurred despite the small survey size. We have developed a cost-effective 3D marine CSEM survey that uses fewer receivers than the survey with a receiver deployment on grids to reduce survey costs for SMS. This CSEM survey uses a line of OBE receivers in the center of the survey area and several transmitter towlines. Numerical tests demonstrate that our survey (seven OBE receivers) using 80% fewer receivers than the survey with a receiver deployment on grids (35 OBE receivers) is able to accurately map SMS, obtaining a performance similar to that of the receiver deployment on grids. Then, we explore SMS in the Ieyama hydrothermal area off Okinawa, southwest Japan, using our 3D CSEM survey with a line of six OBE receivers and three transmitter towlines. The resulting 3D resistivity distribution from the observed data highlights three potential SMS zones consisting of 0.2 ohm-m low resistivity embedded into 1 ohm-m sediment.