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W. Ussler

Publications and source records attributed to W. Ussler.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2010

Submarine mass transport within Monterey Canyon: Benthic disturbance controls on the distribution of chemosynthetic biological communities

Documenting mass transport within Monterey Canyon and Fan has been a focus of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) observations, sampling, monitoring, and multibeam mapping studies. These efforts indicate that major mass transport events occur within upper Monterey Canyon (<2 km water depths) with a sub-annual recurrence frequency. However, 14 C-stratigraphies indicate that a sand carrying event has not penetrated through lower Monterey Canyon (>2 km water depths) and onto Monterey Fan for ~100 years. Simultaneous efforts to document the distribution of benthic taxa observed in the video records from 668 ROV dives conducted by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) provide a uniquely detailed record of the occurrence of chemosynthetic biological communities (CBC). The combined results of these studies provide an understanding of the relationship between disturbance caused by episodic mass wasting events and the distribution of CBC. CBC are common within the canyon's axis below ~2.5 km water depth, but have not been found within the canyon's axis at depths shallower than 2 km. Moreover, CBC occur on the canyon walls at essentially any depth, primarily within young (~hundreds of years old) slump scars. The distribution of CBC provides evidence about the disturbance history of the seafloor. Major mass transport events will destroy communities that lie in their path. Erosion associated with major mass transport events can create environments to support CBC by exposing methane-bearing strata. This can happen as a result of slumping events on the sidewalls of the canyon or where major gravity flow events have excavated the base of canyon walls. Once fresh strata are exposed, geochemical conditions to support CBC will persist for a few centuries. Because CBC are composed of slow-growing and long-lived organisms, it will take decades for these communities to be established. Their existence indicates that environmental stability has occurred over a similar time scale.

California↗
USGS2009

Fine-scale relief related to late holocene channel shifting within the floor of the upper Redondo Fan, offshore Southern California

Erosional and depositional bedforms have been imaged at outcrop scale in the upper Redondo Fan, in the San Pedro Basin of offshore Southern California in ≥600 m water depths, using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle developed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is equipped with multibeam and chirp sub-bottom sonars. Sampling and photographic images using the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Remotely Operated Vehicle Tiburon provide groundtruth for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle survey. The 0·3 m vertical and 1·5 m lateral bathymetric resolution and 0·1 m sub-bottom profile resolution provide unprecedented detail of bedform morphology and structure. Multiple channels within the Redondo Fan have been active at different times during the Late Holocene (0 to 3000 yr bp ). The currently active channel extending from Redondo Canyon makes an abrupt 90° turn at the canyon mouth before resuming a south-easterly course along the east side of the Redondo Fan. This channel is floored by sand and characterized by small steps generally <1 m in relief, spaced 10 to 80 m in the down-channel direction. A broader channel complex lies along the western side of the fan valley that was last active more than 850 years ago. Two distinct trains of large scours, with widths ranging from tens to a few hundred metres and depths of 20 m, occur on the floor of the western channel complex, which has a thin mud drape. If observed in cross-section only, these large scours would probably be misidentified as the thalweg of an active channel.

California↗
USGS2008

Association among active seafloor deformation, mound formation, and gas hydrate growth and accumulation within the seafloor of the Santa Monica Basin, offshore California

Seafloor blister-like mounds, methane migration and gas hydrate formation were investigated through detailed seafloor surveys in Santa Monica Basin, offshore of Los Angeles, California. Two distinct deep-water (??? 800??m water depth) topographic mounds were surveyed using an autonomous underwater vehicle (carrying a multibeam sonar and a chirp sub-bottom profiler) and one of these was explored with the remotely operated vehicle Tiburon. The mounds are > 10??m high and > 100??m wide dome-shaped bathymetric features. These mounds protrude from crests of broad anticlines (~ 20??m high and 1 to 3??km long) formed within latest Quaternary-aged seafloor sediment associated with compression between lateral offsets in regional faults. No allochthonous sediments were observed on the mounds, except slumped material off the steep slopes of the mounds. Continuous streams of methane gas bubbles emanate from the crest of the northeastern mound, and extensive methane-derived authigenic carbonate pavements and chemosynthetic communities mantle the mound surface. The large local vertical displacements needed to produce these mounds suggests a corresponding net mass accumulation has occurred within the immediate subsurface. Formation and accumulation of pure gas hydrate lenses in the subsurface is proposed as a mechanism to blister the seafloor and form these mounds. ?? 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Marine Geology↗
USGS2007

Assessing methane release from the colossal Storegga submarine landslide

Marine slope failure involving methane-gas-hydrate-bearing sediments is one mechanism for releasing enormous quantities of methane to the ocean and atmosphere. The Storegga Slide, on the Norwegian margin, is the largest known Holocene-aged continental margin slope failure complex and is believed to have occurred in sediments that may have initially contained gas hydrate. Here, we report pore water sulfate gradient measurements that are used as a proxy for the relative amounts of methane that exist in continental margin sediments associated with the colossal Storegga Slide. These measurements suggest that a considerable inventory of methane occurs in sediments adjacent to, and unaffected by, the Storegga Slide events, but indicate that methane is notably absent from sediments on the sole of the slide and distal deposits created by the slide events. Either methane was lost during previous Pleistocene failure events or was never present in significant concentrations within the sediments that failed.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS2007

Origin of pingo-like features on the Beaufort Sea shelf and their possible relationship to decomposing methane gas hydrates

[1] The Arctic shelf is currently undergoing dramatic thermal changes caused by the continued warming associated with Holocene sea level rise. During this transgression, comparatively warm waters have flooded over cold permafrost areas of the Arctic Shelf. A thermal pulse of more than 10°C is still propagating down into the submerged sediment and may be decomposing gas hydrate as well as permafrost. A search for gas venting on the Arctic seafloor focused on pingo-like-features (PLFs) on the Beaufort Sea Shelf because they may be a direct consequence of gas hydrate decomposition at depth. Vibracores collected from eight PLFs had systematically elevated methane concentrations. ROV observations revealed streams of methane-rich gas bubbles coming from the crests of PLFs. We offer a scenario of how PLFs may be growing offshore as a result of gas pressure associated with gas hydrate decomposition.

Beaufort Sea↗
USGS2007

Authigenic carbonate formation at hydrocarbon seeps in continental margin sediments: A comparative study

Authigenic carbonates from five continental margin locations, the Eel River Basin, Monterey Bay, Santa Barbara Basin, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the North Sea, exhibit a wide range of mineralogical and stable isotopic compositions. These precipitates include aragonite, low- and high-Mg calcite, and dolomite. The carbon isotopic composition of carbonates varies widely, ranging from −60‰ to +26‰, indicating complex carbon sources that include 13 C-depleted microbial and thermogenic methane and residual, 13 C-enriched, bicarbonate. A similarly large variability of δ 18 O values (−5.5‰ to +8.9‰) demonstrates the geochemical complexity of these sites, with some samples pointing toward an 18 O-enriched oxygen source possibly related to advection of 18 O-enriched formation water or to the decomposition of gas hydrate. Samples depleted in 18 O are consistent with formation deeper in the sediment or mixing of pore fluids with meteoric water during carbonate precipitation. A wide range of isotopic and mineralogical variation in authigenic carbonate composition within individual study areas but common trends across multiple geographic areas suggest that these parameters alone are not indicative for certain tectonic or geochemical settings. Rather, the observed variations probably reflect local controls on the flux of carbon and other reduced ions, such as faults, fluid conduits, the presence or absence of gas hydrate in the sediment, and the temporal evolution of the local carbon reservoir. Areas with seafloor carbonates that indicate formation at greater depth below the sediment–water interface must have undergone uplift and erosion in the past or are still being uplifted. Consequently, the occurrence of carbonate slabs on the seafloor in areas of active hydrocarbon seepage is commonly an indicator of exhumation following carbonate precipitation in the shallow subsurface. Therefore, careful petrographic and geochemical analyses are critical components necessary for the correct interpretation of processes related to hydrocarbon seepage in continental margin environments and elsewhere.

Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Ocea↗
USGS2007

Methane-derived authigenic carbonates from the northern Gulf of Mexico - MD02 Cruise

Authigenic carbonates were sampled in piston cores collected from both the Tunica Mound and the Mississippi Canyon area on the continental slope of the northern Gulf of Mexico during a Marion Dufresne cruise in July 2002. The carbonates are present as hardgrounds, porous crusts, concretions or nodules and shell fragments with or without carbonate cements. Carbonates occurred at gas venting sites which are likely to overlie gas hydrates bearing sediments. Electron microprobe, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thinsection investigations show that these carbonates are high-Mg calcite (6–21 mol% MgCO 3 ), with significant presence of framboidal pyrite. All carbonates are depleted in 13 C ( δ 13 C = − 61.9 to − 31.5‰ PDB) indicating that the carbon is derived mainly from anaerobic methane oxidation (AMO). Age estimates based on 14 C dating of shell fragments and on regional sedimentation rates indicate that these authigenic carbonates formed within the last 1000 yr in the Mississippi Canyon and within 5500 yr at the Tunica Mound. The oxygen isotopic composition of carbonates ranges from + 3.4 to + 5.9‰ PDB. Oxygen isotopic compositions and Mg 2+ contents of carbonates, and present in-situ temperatures of bottom seawater/sediments, show that some of these carbonates, especially from a core associated with underlying massive gas hydrates precipitated in or near equilibrium with bottom-water. On the other hand, those carbonates more enriched in 18 O are interpreted to have precipitated from 18 O-rich fluids which are thought to have been derived from the dissociation of gas hydrates. The dissociation of gas hydrates in the northern Gulf of Mexico within the last 5500 yr may be caused by nearby salt movement and related brines.

Journal of Geochemical Exploration↗
USGS2005

Geochemical constraints on the distribution of gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico

Gas hydrates are common within near-seafloor sediments immediately surrounding fluid and gas venting sites on the continental slope of the northern Gulf of Mexico. However, the distribution of gas hydrates within sediments away from the vents is poorly documented, yet critical for gas hydrate assessments. Porewater chloride and sulfate concentrations, hydrocarbon gas compositions, and geothermal gradients obtained during a porewater geochemical survey of the northern Gulf of Mexico suggest that the lack of bottom simulating reflectors in gas-rich areas of the gulf may be the consequence of elevated porewater salinity, geothermal gradients, and microbial gas compositions in sediments away from fault conduits.

Geo-Marine Letters↗
USGS2000

Comparisons of in situ and core gas measurements in ODP Leg 164 bore holes

During Ocean Drilling Program Leg 164, an unprecedented effort was made to determine the amounts of gas and gas hydrate in the sediments from Sites 994, 995, and 997. For the first time in the history of academic drilling, a pressure core sampler (PCS) worked well enough to generate an independent stratigraphy of in situ gas concentrations and compositions with depth. Here, gas concentrations and composition data produced by routine shipboard gas sampling techniques are compared with PCS data.

Conference Paper↗