Conceptual Models of Gas Accumulation in the Shallow Permafrost of Northern West Siberia and Conditions for Explosive Gas Emissions

Chuvilin, Evgeny; Sokolova, Natalia; Davletshina, Dinara; Bukhanov, Boris; Stanilovskaya, Julia; Badetz, Christian; Spasennykh, М.

doi:10.3390/geosciences10050195

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Such a fault may impede horizontal movement of the methane but allow vertical movement beneath Esieh Lake. Similar previous reports, 27,44 it is possible that relic hydrates have already been encompassed and disassociated by talik development. The potential for remnant gas hydrates to exist is discussed in Section 5.3.3.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The model is similar to the general model in Chuvilin et al, 44 figure 4 therein, where a talik develops beneath a lake that serves as a conduit for subpermafrost gas migration and contains a more permeable zone in addition to intralake gas generation. Ground truth measurements for the depth of this unconsolidated layer do not exist in our study region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The mechanisms of pockmark formation involve upward fluid flows 20,30,40,42 including hydrodynamic blowouts, 27 submarine hydrate dissolution, 35,43 catastrophic dissolution of subterranean hydrates, 39 and explosive cryovulcanism events from compressed gas systems 44,45 . These mechanisms occur on a range of timescales spanning rapid, catastrophic explosions to gradual displacement over an undetermined length of time 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of permafrost thaw on an extreme geologic methane seep

Sullivan

Parsekian

Sharp

et al. 2021

Permafrost & Periglacial

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The occurrence and magnitude of natural fossil methane (CH4) emissions in the Arctic are poorly known. Emission of geologic CH4, a potent greenhouse gas, originating beneath permafrost is of particular interest due to the potential for positive feedback to climate warming, whereby accelerated permafrost thaw releases permafrost‐trapped CH4 in a future warmer climate. The development of through‐going taliks in Arctic lakes overlying hydrocarbon reservoirs is one mechanism of releasing geologically sourced, subpermafrost CH4. Here we use novel gas flux measurements, geophysical observations of the subsurface, shallow sediment coring, high‐resolution bathymetry measurements, and lake water chemistry measurements to produce a synoptic survey of the gas vent system in Esieh Lake, a northwest Alaska lake with exceedingly large geologic CH4 seep emissions. We find that microbially produced fossil CH4 is being vented though a narrow thaw conduit below Esieh Lake through pockmarks on the lake bottom. This is one of the highest flux geologic CH4 seep fields known in the terrestrial environment and potentially the highest flux single methane seep. The poleward retreat of continuous permafrost may have implications for more subcap CH4 release with increased permafrost thaw.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of permafrost thaw on an extreme geologic methane seep

Sullivan

Parsekian

Sharp

et al. 2021

Permafrost & Periglacial

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“…This required research into possible models of the PHMs' formation, as well as their destruction during the explosion. Various models have been proposed and substantiated in the papers of the OGRI RAS authors [6,8,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]68] and other scientists [40,42,43,47,[49][50][51][52]57,58,76].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In August 2020, an expedition to survey this object was carried out. In addition to the staff of the OGRI RAS, the expedition was attended by specialists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, who also have experience in the research of similar objects [12,16,[40][41][42][43]76]. The purpose of this article was to report the preliminary results of research on the C17 crater of gas blowout.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Catastrophic Gas Blowout and Giant Crater on the Yamal Peninsula in 2020: Results of the Expedition and Data Processing

Bogoyavlensky

Nikonov

et al. 2021

Geosciences

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This article describes the results of an Arctic expedition studying the new giant gas blowout crater in the north of Western Siberia, in the central part of the Yamal Peninsula in 2020. It was named C17 in the geoinformation system “Arctic and the World Ocean” created by the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (OGRI RAS). On the basis of remote sensing, it can be seen that the formation of the crater C17 was preceded by a long-term growth of the perennial heaving mound (PHM) on the surface of the third marine terrace. Based on the interpretation of satellite images, it was substantiated that the crater C17 was formed in the period 15 May–9 June 2020. For the first time, as a result of aerial photography from inside the crater with a UAV, a 3D model of the crater and a giant cavity in the ground ice, formed during its thawing from below, was built. The accumulation of gas, the pressure rise and the development of gas-dynamic processes in the cavity led to the growth of the PHM, and the explosion and formation of the crater.

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Formation of the Siberian Yamal gas emission crater via accumulation and explosive release of gas within permafrost

Schurmeier,

Brouwer,

Fagents

2023

Permafrost & Periglacial

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The Arctic landscape has experienced many dramatic forms of change due to anthropogenic warming. Large crater‐like forms surrounded by fragmented blocks scattered outward to great distances with precursor mounds appeared in the continuous permafrost zone of the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas of Western Siberia. The morphologies of these craters, in addition to the abundant evidence of active and intense gas emissions across the region, indicate that they formed due the subsurface accumulation, pressurization, and explosive release of gasses trapped within the permafrost. Therefore, these craters were termed “gas emission craters” (GEC). However, some have suggested that in addition to gas accumulation, these features form in a manner similar to ice‐cored pingos and require pressurization due to the freezing of subsurface ice. This is despite the fact that not all GECs form in areas conducive to pingo‐like ice accumulation. Here, we test whether the pressurization and explosive release of methane gas alone can reproduce the observed morphology of the first‐discovered and most intensely studied GEC, Yamal crater. We use the available field and satellite data to constrain the initial dimension parameters of a model of the explosion process and consider several plausible configurations for the unknown interior cavity shape, the overlying permafrost cap thickness, and gas chamber volume. The explosion process is modeled in phases: gas migrates upward and accumulates in the subsurface until the gas pressure fractures the overlying cap, the expanding gas and cap blocks are initially accelerated outward together, and then the blocks are launched as projectiles. The sizes and locations of the ejected blocks found at Yamal crater are used to determine the initial gas pressures required to launch those projectiles to the observed locations. Finally, we estimate the amount of gas released in each of the multiple model runs testing different plausible internal cavity geometries. For the range of plausible block sizes and densities, and a subset of gas chamber volumes considered, we find that the gas pressure (0.6–2.6 MPa) required to launch the Yamal crater blocks to their observed distances was within the range of the sum of the ice/permafrost tensile strength and the lithostatic pressure (0.22–2.87 MPa). Thus, the observed blocks could have been launched by the energy required to fracture and displace the overlying permafrost cap. We show that the mechanism of formation of this GEC does not require pressure from the freezing of ice in the subsurface to crack and explode the overlying permafrost—gas pressure alone can produce these GECs. We expect that as our planet warms, the Siberian permafrost will continue to warm, weaken, and release gasses such as the greenhouse gas methane, and contribute to a permafrost carbon‐positive feedback cycle that would lead to the formation of even more explosive GECs.

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Conceptual Models of Gas Accumulation in the Shallow Permafrost of Northern West Siberia and Conditions for Explosive Gas Emissions

Cited by 22 publications

References 27 publications

Influence of permafrost thaw on an extreme geologic methane seep

Influence of permafrost thaw on an extreme geologic methane seep

New Catastrophic Gas Blowout and Giant Crater on the Yamal Peninsula in 2020: Results of the Expedition and Data Processing

Formation of the Siberian Yamal gas emission crater via accumulation and explosive release of gas within permafrost

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