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Assessing Deep-Water Gulf of Mexico Gas-Hydrate Systems with Multicomponent and Multi-frequency Seismic Data

Bob A. Hardage, principal investigator; Milo M. Backus, Robert J. Graebner, Paul E. Murray, Randy L. Remington, and Diana C. Sava

The Exploration Geophysics Laboratory (EGL) is a subcontractor to Louisiana State University in this study. Research is funded by the U.S. Department of Interior, Minerals Management Service. The study will investigate several seafloor fluid-gas expulsion sites in the deep-water area of Green Canyon in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Sites will be selected that are traversed by one or more of WesternGeco's deep-water, multiclient, 4-C OBC seismic lines. Multifrequency imaging of gas-hydrate systems associated with these expulsion chimneys will be done by acquiring 2- to 16-kHz chirp-sonar data using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and 500- to 2,000-Hz data with the Naval Research Laboratory Deep-Towed Acoustic/Geophysics System (DTAGS). These AUV and DTAGS images will then be compared with 4-C OBC images along each profile that is analyzed.

This map shows multi-client 4-C OBC surveys acquired in the Gulf of Mexico by WesternGeco. This study will utilize short portions of seismic profiles from the Green Canyon NC and Green Canyon NE surveys.

 

For more information, please contact Bob Hardage, principal investigator.
512-471-0300; e-mail bob.hardage@beg.utexas.edu.