Reflection seismic indicators for submarine permafrost and gas hydrate distributions on the Canadian Arctic Beaufort Shelf

Since the last glaciation the Canadian Arctic Beaufort Shelf is subjected to marine transgression. From subaerial mean annual temperatures during terrestrial exposure of ≤ -20°C, thermal conditions changed up to present submarine bottom water temperatures near -1°C. While conditions during the Pliocene favoured extensive formation of permafrost and gas hydrates, present occurrences are exposed to degradation due to the warmer climate. Today, submerged offshore permafrost is still responding to this thermal change. Ongoing degradation creates the potential of methane release of previously trapped biogenic gas within the relic permafrost and from gas hydrate dissociation. The mobilisation of methane and its possible release to the atmosphere plays a significant role in climate change. Yet, both the extent of permafrost and underlying gas hydrates is still poorly known. Here, we present seismic indicators for offshore permafrost and gas hydrates in 2D multichannel reflection seismic data acquired in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. Seismic lines that run from the shallow shelf towards deeper water show layer-crossing reflections that become gradually shallower towards the north-west into deeper water. These reflections show an amplitude-varying characteristic and are phase-reversed. We first use shot gathers from a synthetic model based on the field seismic acquisition characteristics and borehole geophysical data to verify our general ability to detect permafrost-and gas hydrate-related reflections. The synthetic data were processed using the same data processing applied to the field data and reveal clear top and base of permafrost and gas hydrate reflections. With this encouraging result, we can exclude any potentially misleading processing artefacts in the field seismic data. We interpret the amplitude-varying, phase-reversed and layer-crossing reflections seen in the field data as seismic indicators for the base of permafrost and base of gas hydrates. In contrast to the synthetic data, top of permafrost and top of gas hydrates are not clearly identified in the field data. However, additional seismic indicators support the interpretation of the presence of permafrost including attenuation of acoustic penetration and velocity pull-up effects at presumably horizontal strata. Furthermore, strong amplitude variations beneath the current base of gas hydrates and bright spots indicate trapped free gas accumulations from possible previously dissociated gas hydrates.

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