Natural oil seepage at Kobuleti Ridge, eastern Black Sea

Körber, Jan-Hendrik; Sahling, Heiko; Pape, Thomas; Ferreira, Christian dos Santos; MacDonald, Ian R.; Bohrmann, Gerhard

doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2013.11.007

Cited by 60 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Most seeps at continental margins are dominated by the seepage of biogenic and thermogenic methane (Claypool & Kvenvolden, 1983;Suess et al, 1999;Suess, 2014). However, many hydrocarbon seeps have been discovered that are characterized by expulsions of crude oil (Estes et al, 1985;Kennicutt et al, 1988a;MacDonald et al, 2000;Kvenvolden & Cooper, 2003;Joye et al, 2004;K€ orber et al, 2014;Jiang et al, 2018). Such seeps are ideally suited to study the impact of oil seepage on the diversity, activity and distribution of microbial communities, as well as the role of oil seepage and its subsequent degradation for carbonate authigenesis (Naehr et al, 2009;Orcutt et al, 2010;Birgel et al, 2011;Schubotz et al, 2011a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil seepage and carbonate formation: A case study from the southern Gulf of Mexico

et al. 2019

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Oil seeps from the southern Gulf of Mexico can be regarded as natural laboratories where the effect of crude oil seepage on chemosynthesis‐based communities and carbonate precipitation can be studied. During R/V Meteor cruise 114 the seep sites UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) Ridge, Mictlan Knoll and Tsanyao Yang Knoll (Bay of Campeche, southern Gulf of Mexico) were investigated and sampled for authigenic carbonate deposits containing large amounts of liquid oil and solid asphalt. The δ13C values of individual carbonate phases including: (i) microcrystalline matrix aragonite and calcite; (ii) grey, cryptocrystalline to microcrystalline aragonite; and (iii) clear, fibrous aragonite cement, are between −30‰ and −20‰, agreeing with oil as the primary carbon source. Raman spectra reveal that residual heavy oils from all sites are immature and most likely originate from the same reservoir. Geochemical batch modelling using the software code PHREEQC demonstrates how sulphate‐driven oxidation of oil‐derived low‐molecular to high‐molecular weight hydrocarbons affects carbonate saturation state, and shows that the oxidation state of carbon in hydrocarbon compounds and oxidation rates of hydrocarbons control carbonate saturation and precipitation at oil seeps. Phase‐specific trace and rare earth element contents of microcrystalline aragonite and calcite, grey cryptocrystalline aragonite and clear aragonite were determined, revealing enrichment in light rare earth elements for grey aragonite. By comparing trace element patterns of carbonates with those of associated oils, it becomes apparent that liquid hydrocarbons constitute an additional source of trace metals to sedimentary pore waters. This work not only demonstrates that the microbial degradation of oil at seeps may result in the precipitation of carbonate minerals, it also elucidates that trace metal inventories of seep carbonates archive diagnostic elemental patterns, which can be assigned to the presence of heavy hydrocarbons in interstitial pore waters.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oil seepage and carbonate formation: A case study from the southern Gulf of Mexico

et al. 2019

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“…Some 10,000 of seepage are reported to exist within the Georgian shelf (Körber et al, 2014). Several areas of active gas venting and oil seeps are also discovered in Romanian, Ukrainian, and Turkish waters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mesoscale eddies on behavior of an oil spill resulting from an accidental deepwater blowout in the Black Sea: an assessment of the environmental impacts

Korotenko¹

2018

PeerJ

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Because of the environmental sensitivity of the Black Sea, as a semi-enclosed sea, any subsea oil spill can cause destructive impacts on the marine environment and beaches. Employing numerical modeling as a prediction tool is one of the most efficient methods to understand oil spill behavior under various environmental forces. In this regard, a coupled circulation/deepsea oil spill model has been applied to the Black Sea to address the behavior of the oil plume resulting from a representative hypothetical deepwater blowout. With climatological forcing, the hydrodynamic module based on DieCAST ocean circulation model realistically reproduces seasonally-varying circulation from basin-scale dominant structures to meso- and sub-mesoscale elements. The oil spill model utilizes pre-calculated DieCAST thermo-hydrodynamic fields and uses a Lagrangian tracking algorithm for predicting the displacement of a large number of seeded oil droplets, the sum of which forms the rising oil plume resulting from a deepwater blowout. Basic processes affecting the transport, dispersal of oil and its fate in the water column are included in the coupled model. A hypothetical oil source was set at the bottom, at the northwestern edge of the Shatsky Ridge in the area east of the Crimea Peninsula where the oil exploration/development is likely to be planned. Goals of the study are to elucidate the behavior of the subsea oil plume and assess scales of contamination of marine environment and coastlines resulting from potential blowouts. The two 20-day scenarios with the oil released by a hypothetical blowout were examined to reveal combined effects of the basin-scale current, near-shore eddies, and winds on the behavior of the rising oil plume and its spreading on the surface. Special attention is paid to the Caucasian near-shore anticyclonic eddy which is able to trap surfacing oil, detain it and deliver it to shores. The length of contaminated coastlines of vulnerable Crimean and Caucasian coasts are assessed along with amounts of oil beached and deposited.

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“…These field works were carried in this area in 2005 as part of a UNESCO training and research program as well as in 2007 and in 2011 within the German Methane and Methane Hydrates (METRO) project. Investigations on the south-eastern continental slope [41,42] have shown that there are gas jet seepages where methane coexists simultaneously in free form and as gas hydrates, which is very unique for the Black Sea. The characteristic feature of these seepages is the presence of oil traces in the seabed gas hydrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite Survey of Inner Seas: Oil Pollution in the Black and Caspian Seas

Mityagina

Lavrova

2016

Remote Sensing

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Abstract:The paper discusses our studies of oil pollution in the Black and Caspian Seas. The research was based on a multi-sensor approach on satellite survey data. A combined analysis of oil film signatures in satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical imagery was performed. Maps of oil spills detected in satellite imagery of the whole aquatic area of the Black Sea and the Middle and the Southern Caspian Sea are created. Areas of the heaviest pollution are outlined. It is shown that the main types of sea surface oil pollution are ship discharges and natural marine hydrocarbon seepages. For each type of pollution and each sea, regions of regular pollution occurrence were determined, polluted areas were estimated, and specific manifestation features were revealed.Long-term observations demonstrate that in recent years, illegal wastewater discharges into the Black Sea have become very common, which raises serious environmental issues. Manifestations of seabed hydrocarbon seepages were also detected in the Black Sea, primarily in its eastern part. The patterns of surface oil pollution of the Caspian Sea differ considerably from those observed in the Black Sea. They are largely determined by presence of big seabed oil and gas deposits. The dependence of surface oil SAR signatures on wind/wave conditions is discussed. The impact of dynamic and circulation processes on oil films drift and spread is investigated. A large amount of the data available allowed us to make some generalizations and obtain statistically significant results on spatial and temporal variability of various surface film manifestations. The examples and numerical data we provide on ship spills and seabed seepages reflect the influence of the pollution on the sea environment.

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Natural oil seepage at Kobuleti Ridge, eastern Black Sea

Cited by 60 publications

References 65 publications

Oil seepage and carbonate formation: A case study from the southern Gulf of Mexico

Oil seepage and carbonate formation: A case study from the southern Gulf of Mexico

Effects of mesoscale eddies on behavior of an oil spill resulting from an accidental deepwater blowout in the Black Sea: an assessment of the environmental impacts

Satellite Survey of Inner Seas: Oil Pollution in the Black and Caspian Seas

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