Acoustic imagery evidence for methane hydrates in the Ulleung Basin

Approximately 12,000 km(2) of acoustic backscatter imagery (sidescan) data and swath bathymetry data were collected jointly by Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy, the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), Hawaii Mapping Research Group (HMRG) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) in 1995. Preliminary analysis of these data have revealed a large network of canyons with well-developed fan deposits and slumps which were not previously mapped. Also identified is a 1400 km(2) area occupied by more than 300 circular, low-backscatter features ca. 50-1000 m in diameter which are interpreted to be pockmarks or mounds created by escaping methane gas, methane-rich porewater and mud. Indirect evidence for the probable existence of methane gas hydrate include the five following observations: (1) Core samples in the region contain high levels of organic carbon (> 7%), degassing cracks caused by gas expansion, and emit a strong H2S odor. (2) Extensive canyon formation and slumping may have occurred as the result of the destabilization of sediments due to gas accumulation. (3) Several of the high backscatter objects occur at the crest of a bathymetric high under which gas could be accumulating and periodically releasing in a manner similar to that documented on the Vestnesa Ridge in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. (4) Pockmark-like features have been identified in 3.5 kHz records on the northern edge of the Ulleung Basin. (5) Drill core samples from the morphologically similar Yamato Basin, which is adjacent to the Ulleung Basin, have positively identified methane and numerous gas voids in unconsolidated sediments. No bottom simulating reflector (BSR) has been identified in seismic reflection profiles collected across the slope in Ulleung Basin.