Excess pore pressure resulting from methane hydrate dissociation in marine sediments: A theoretical approach

Abstract

This study quantifies the excess pore pressure resulting from gas hydrate dissociation in marine sediments. The excess pore pressure in confined pore spaces can be up to several tens of megapascals due to the tendency for volume expansion associated with gas hydrate dissociation. On the other hand, the magnitude of excess pore pressure in wellconnected sediment pores is generally smaller, depending primarily on the hydrate dissociation rate and the sediment permeability. Volume expansion due to gas hydrate dissociation in well-connected pore spaces is related via Darcy's law to an increase in pore pressure and its gradient in sediment, which drives an additional upward fluid flow through the sediment layer overlying the gas hydrate dissociation area. The magnitude of this excess pore pressure is found to be proportional to the rate of gas hydrate dissociation and the depth below seafloor and inversely proportional to sediment permeability and the depth below sea level. The excess pore pressure is the greatest at low initial pressures and decreases rapidly with increasing initial pressure. Excess pore pressure may be the result of gashydrate dissociation due to continuous sedimentation, tectonic uplift, sea level fall, heating or inhibitor injection. The excess pore pressure is found to be potentially able (1) to facilitate or trigger submarine landslides in shallow water environments, (2) to result in the formation of vertical columns of focused fluid flow and gas migration, and (3) to cause the failure of a sediment layer confined by low-permeability barriers in relatively deep water environments. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.