Methane sediments

Similar to Sites 994 and 995, six indicators of hydrate were present (1) large gas exsolution from cores, (2) high methane sediment concentration, (3) BSRs, (4) low interstitial-water chlorinity, (5) low core temperatures (although IR technology was introduced just after this hydrate leg), and (6) P-wave velocity logs and resistivity logs. As in Sites 994 and 995, there was a discrepancy between the indicated base of the inferred hydrate zone (452 mbsf) and the phase-equilibria stability zone (491 to 524 mbsf). 

Martens C. S. and Klump J. V. (1980) Biogeochemical cycling in an organic-rich coastal marine basin 1. Methane sediment-water exchange processes. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 44, 471-490. 

Milkov, A.V., Global estimates of hydrate-bound gas in methane sediments how much is really out there Earth Science Reviews 66 183-197 (2004). 

Since methane is almost always a byproduct of organic decay, it is not surprising that vast potential reserves of methane have been found trapped in ocean floor sediments. Methane forms continually by tiny bacteria breaking down the remains of sea life. In the early 197Qs it was discovered that this methane can dissolve under the enormous pressure and cold temperatures found at the ocean bottom. It becomes locked in a cage of water molecules to form a methane hydrate (methane weakly combined chemically with water). This "stored" methane is a resource often extending hundreds of meters down from the sea floor. 

In the United States, methane is a major energy source used in many homes for cooking and heating of water and indoor air and water. It is commonly known that some power plants and industries use natural gas as a source of energy for generation of electricity and process heat and that this methane is a fossil fuel obtained from gas wells and transmitted throughout the country by gas pipelines. Most people also know that methane bubbles up from polluted swamps where sedimented plant matter is undergoing decomposition. Because of odors from swamps, and the odor due to natural gas additives, methane is incorrectly considered malodorous. 

Koyama, T. (1963). Gaseous metabolism in lake sediments and paddy soils and the production of atmospheric methane and hydrogen, /. Geophys. Res. 68, 3971-3973. 

Oremland RS, JP Zehr (1986) Formation of methane and carbon dioxide from dimethylselenide in anoxic sediments and by a methanogenic bacterium. Appl Environ Microbiol 52 1031-1036. 

Orphan VL, CH Hpuse, K-U Hinrichs, KD McKeegan, EE DeLong (2002) Multiple archaeal groups mediate methane oxidation in anoxic cold seep sediments. Proc Natl Acad USA 99 7663-7668. 

Pancost RD, Damste JSS, de Lint S, van der Maarel MJEC, Gottschal JC, The Medinaut Shipboard Scientific Party (2000) Biomarker evidence for widespread anaerobic methane oxidation in mediterranean sediments by a consortium of methanogenic archaea and bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol... 

All of the above particulate investigations were based on mini-radiocarbon measurement techniques, with sample masses typically in the range of 5-10 mg-carbon. This constituted a major advantage, because it was practicable to select special samples (given region, source impact, sediment depth) and to further subject such samples to physical (size) or chemical separation before 14C measurement. This type of "serial selectivity" provides maximum information content about the samples and in fact it is essential when information is sought for the sources or atmospheric distributions of pure chemical species, such as methane or elemental carbon. 

In the case where the anaerobic processes take place under conditions where consumption of Ss by the sulfate-reducing biomass and the fermenting biomass must be considered, Equation (7.10) expresses the total anaerobic hydrolysis rate. This equation is based on the assumption that methane formation in sewers without sediment normally can be neglected (Section 3.2.2). 

Hawthorne et al. [53] compared supercritical monochloride-fluoromethane, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide for the extraction of polychlorobiphenyl from sediments. Monochlorodifluoro methane provided the highest recovery. Methanol modified carbon dioxide provided a 90% recovery of polychlorobiphenyls from sediments. 

Surfactants such as LAS and NPEO have been found in compartments with low oxygen content, such as anaerobic sludge digesters or anaerobic continental and marine sediments [14,15,18-25]. One of the possible causes of this persistence is the inhibition of the anaerobic digestion [17,26,27]. Battersby and Wilson [27] observed inhibitory effects of NP at 50 mg CL-1 on methane formation in a survey of the anaerobic biodegradation potential of organic chemicals in digesting... 

The first use of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) as an extraction technique was reported by Zosel [379]. Since then there have been many reports on the use of SFE to extract PCBs, phenols, PAHs, and other organic compounds from particulate matter, soils and sediments [362, 363, 380-389]. The attraction of SFE as an extraction technique is directly related to the unique properties of the supercritical fluid [390]. Supercritical fluids, which have been used, have low viscosities, high diffusion coefficients, and low flammabilities, which are all clearly superior to the organic solvents normally used. Carbon dioxide (C02, [362,363]) is the most common supercritical fluid used for SFE, since it is inexpensive and has a low critical temperature (31.3 °C) and pressure (72.2 bar). Other less commonly used fluids include nitrous oxide (N20), ammonia, fluoro-form, methane, pentane, methanol, ethanol, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and dichlorofluoromethane [362, 363, 391]. Most of these fluids are clearly less attractive as solvents in terms of toxicity or as environmentally benign chemicals. Commercial SFE systems are available, but some workers have also made inexpensive modular systems [390]. 

About 20% of the World s natural gas is of biogenic origin. Biogenic methane commonly occurs in recent freshwater or marine sediments and results from various bacterial fermentation processes. Typical 813C for methanes from marine sediments... 

Some gases have subsurfece sources that are related to physical phenomena, such as inputs from the introduction of hydrothermal fluids in bottom waters or release from warming sediments. The latter is a source of methane, which can occur in sediments in a solid phase called a clathrate hydrate. Biogeochemical reactions in sediments can also produce gases that diffuse from the pore waters into the deep sea. 

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