海洋浅表层沉积物和孔隙水的天然气水合物地球化学异常识别标志

天然气水合物是一种赋存在低温,高压条件下海底沉积物中的规模巨大的新型能源,研究表明,地球化学是识别海底天然气水合物赋存的一种有效方法。国际上通过分析由大洋钻探采上来的柱状沉积物和孔隙水的地球化学异常,已建立了一套较为成熟的地球化学识别方法。但是,在没有钻井岩心的情况下,如何通过浅表层（＜20m）沉积物和孔隙水及底层海水的地球化学分析来识别海底可能存在的天然气水合物,是国际国内天然气水合物勘查中面临的一道难题,通过对国际上已有数据和资料的全面总结,尝试提出了一系列在海底浅层条件下识别天然气水合物赋存的地球异常标志,包括底层海水的烃类气体及其同位素组成异常,沉积物有机碳和水的含量异常,沉积物中孔隙水的元素和同位素组成异常,沉积物中气体含量异常及沉积物中自生碳酸盐矿物的化学和同位素组成异常等。这些标志的建立将有助于在我国海域开展天然气水合物的勘查工作。     

南海北部陆坡珠江口盆地东南海域GMGS2-09井孔隙水地球化学特征及其对天然气水合物的指示意义

沉积物孔隙水地球化学是天然气水合物勘探与研究的重要手段。为了探究珠江口盆地东南海域GMGS2-09钻孔的沉积物孔隙水地球化学特征及其对埋藏的天然气水合物的指示意义,我们在前人的研究和认知基础上,通过测试该钻孔沉积物孔隙水的氯离子含量、氢氧同位素和阳离子组成来识别天然气水合物的赋存层位。结果表明GMGS2-09钻孔在9～17、47以及100m处存在氯离子浓度的负异常耦合氧同位素的正异常,指示相应的天然气水合物赋存,其中9～17m层位指示结果与实际取样情况完全一致。此外,采用基于水合物晶格的排盐机理推导的经验公式计算显示水合物饱和度在浅表层(17m)最高约为50%,中间以及底层约为20%。     

南海琼东南海域沉积物的微量元素地球化学特征及其对天然气水合物的指示意义

天然气水合物已成为重要的战略资源。为探讨天然气水合物富集区的微量元素特征及其指示意义,对琼东南海域沉积物进行系统采样,分析了样品主、微量元素和TOC地球化学特征,并采用氧化还原状态以及氧化还原敏感元素与TOC相关关系的分析方法进行探讨。结果显示:沉积物相较于上地壳更为富集Sr、Pb、Th、U、Zn、Cu和Mo元素,Th/U和V/Sc比值在纵向上呈系统的变化,表层沉积物处于还原的沉积状态,大量富集Mo和U。初步推断研究区部分沉积物可能处于硫化带,使其出现氧化还原敏感元素(Mo和U)的富集,这些特征或由下部天然气水合物分解释放大量的甲烷所导致。表层沉积物孔隙水中出现的硫化带以及Mo和U元素异常,可作为新的地球化学指标以识别下部可能存在的天然气水合物资源。     

用地球化学方法勘查中国南海的天然气水合物

天然气水合物是一种未来新型能源,赋存于低温高压环境下的海洋沉积物中,但也可形成于大陆永久冻土带中。天然气水合物资源量巨大,具有经济和环境上的研究意义。近年来,国际上己对天然气水合物的产况、分布和形成机理开展了大量研究,但国内这方面的工作还刚刚开展。对中国南海的调查表明该区存在天然气水合物赋存的有利地质条件、温压条件和富含有机质的沉积条件。在南海的许多海区还发现了指示天然气水合物存在的地震标志(BSR)。介绍了在南海天然气水合物勘查中的地球化学异常标志。这些地球化学异常的产生可能与天然气水合物的形成或分解过程有关。研究内容包括沉积物中气体含量(主要为甲烷和乙烷),甲烷的碳同位素,孔隙水中阴离子(Cl^-、SO4^2-等)、阳离子(Ca^2 、Mg^2 、Ba^2 、Sr^2 ,B^3 和NH4^ 等)浓度和δ^18,δD,δ^11B,及^87Sr／^86Sr等同位素组成,此外还对海底沉积物的热释光特征和紫外、可见、近红外反射光谱特征开展了探索性研究。通过进一步加强理论和实验研究,结合地球物理和地球化学资料,在不远的将来将会在南海发现和圈定天然气水合物矿藏。     

南海北部陆坡天然气水合物的沉积物孔隙水地球化学研究进展

孔隙水地球化学异常是天然气水合物勘探的重要工具之一,南海北部陆坡地区拥有良好的天然气水合物成藏潜力,孔隙水地球化学异常在南海的天然气水合物勘探中发挥了重要作用。其中与水合物直接相关的氯离子含量异常被用于识别神狐及东沙海域钻探区的水合物层和计算水合物饱和度。除直接指标外,浅表层沉积物中的硫酸盐含量及其他与早期成岩作用有关的地球化学异常作为间接指标可用于水合物的找矿预测,研究者们通过对硫酸盐还原过程的判别、硫酸盐甲烷接触界面的计算等方面对南海北部陆坡不同海域的沉积物甲烷通量进行了评估,预测出水合物可能的成藏区域。其他如碘含量、氧化还原敏感元素、氯同位素、地球化学模型等新的地球化学指标和计算机手段也被应用于南海北部陆坡区水合物成藏研究并取得了不错的成效。     

天然气水合物的地球化学识别标志及探测技术

介绍了天然气水合物地球化学识别标志及相关的分析测试技术,包括海底沉积物空隙水中阴离子和同位素地球化学异常、标型矿物、海底底层水中CH4异常等。应用地球化学、地球物理、地质方法对天然气水合物进行综合研究,可提高天然气水合物勘探的精确度。     

琼东南盆地与甲烷渗漏有关的早期成岩作用和孔隙水化学组分异常

X-射线衍射和扫描电镜观察表明,采自南海北部琼东南盆地的沉积物样品中有天然气水合物和甲烷渗漏指示意义的自生碳酸盐、硫酸盐和草莓状framboids黄铁矿,自生矿物组合和显微结构特征与冷泉沉积物类似,属微生物成因。沉积物孔隙水化学组分分析结果显示,随着埋藏深度加深,SO₄2-,Ca2+,Mg2+和Sr2+浓度明显降低,Mg2+浓度与Ca2+浓度和Sr2+浓度与Ca2+浓度的比值急剧增加,这些地球化学特征与世界上天然气水合物产区的浅表层沉积物孔隙水中离子浓度异常吻合较好,暗示采样站位深部可能有油气或天然气水合物藏。     

南海北部东沙海域水合物区浅表层沉积物的地球化学特征

对采自南海北部陆坡东沙海域水合物区HD319、HD196A和GC10站位的浅表层沉积物进行了地球化学特征研究。X射线衍射分析和扫描电镜观察表明,沉积物中存在具有天然气水合物和甲烷渗漏指示意义的自生碳酸盐、硫酸盐和黄铁矿。沉积物孔隙水化学组分分析显示,随着埋藏深度加深,SO42-、Ca2+、Mg2+和Sr2+浓度明显降低,CH4、H2S浓度的增加,以及Mg2+/Ca2+和Sr2+/Ca2+比值急剧增加,与世界上水合物区浅表层沉积物孔隙水中离子浓度异常特征吻合。沉积物顶空气游离烃分析结果和孔隙水化学组分变化,特别是SO42-、H2S和甲烷含量的急剧变化,说明研究区有丰富的气源,赋存水合物的可能性非常大,同时指示了研究区硫酸盐-甲烷界面(SMI)较浅,位于海底之下8m左右。     

海洋沉积物中天然气水合物的形成、分布与演化预测

我们运用一个新的分析公式，解出了动量，质量和能量联立方程。这个方程控制着海洋沉积物中天然气水合物的聚集和演化，而且可以推导出水合物稳定区的顶底位置，水合物实际产生区的顶底位置，沉积物中水合物聚集速率的时间，以及在扩散和平流两端元系统中聚集速度与深度的关系。得出的主要结论如下：（1）天然气水合物在海洋沉积物中实际出现的底界通常并不与天在气水合物稳定带底一致，比稳定带底要浅。同样，有确切的物理解释来说明天然气水合物稳定带底界一致，比稳定底界要浅。同样，有确切的物理解释来说明天然气水合物稳定带顶界（通常在海底）和天然气水合物生成带顶界的不一致。（2）如果似海底反射界面（BSR）标志着游离气带的顶界，那么在某些地背景下BSR实际上应当发生在比稳定带底更深的地方。（3）甲烷天然气水合物温压稳定域内存在的甲烷甲对于天然气水合物的生成是不够的。只有甲烷溶解在流体中的质量分数超过甲烷在海水中甲烷的溶解度，或者甲烷通量超过了对应于甲烷扩散运移率的临界值时天然气水合物才能生成。可以利用这些临界通量综合地球物理或地球化学资料限定生物成因和热成因的甲烷最小产生率。（4）对于大多数扩散－分散系数值，以扩散为主的天然气水合物体系是以在稳定带底界附近的天然气水合物薄层为特征的，以扩散为主的天然气水合物体系是以在稳定带底附近的天然气水合物薄层为特征的。以平流为主的系统有厚的天然气水合物层，而且对于高的流体通量，在层底比在沉积序列浅层有更大规模的聚集。基于以上结果以及在某些以扩散为主的体系中生成最小的天然气水合物区也需要很高的甲烷通量，我们推测所有的自然界的天然气水合物系统，甚至那么如被动边缘的相对低通量的环境都可能以平流占主导地位。     

胶州湾沉积物地球化学特征的初步研究

关于胶州湾沉积物的地球化学研究,迄今未有报道,本文拟做一尝试.文中揭示了胶州湾表层沉积物的化学成分特征,对部分微量元素的地球化学特征进行了初步探讨,并对比分析了胶州湾同其它海湾沉积物在地球化学特征方面的异同点.     

Microbial Biomass and Organic Nutrients in the Deep-Sea Sediments of the Central Indian Ocean Basin

In order to assess the impact of deep-sea mining on the in situ benthic life, we measured the microbial standing stock and concentration of organic nutrients in the deep-sea sediments of the Central Indian Ocean Basin in the Indian pioneer area. Sediments were collected using box core and grab samples during September 1996. The total bacterial numbers ranged from 10 10 -10 11 cells per g -1 dry weight sediment. There was a marginal decrease in the number of bacteria from surface to 30 cm depth, though the subsurface section registered a higher number than did the surface. The highest numbers were encountered at depths of 4-8 cm. The retrievable number of bacteria were two orders less in comparison with the direct total counts of bacteria. An almost homogeneous distribution of bacteria, total organic carbon, living biomass, and lipids throughout the depth of cores indicates active microbial and benthic processes in the deep sea sediments. On the other hand, a uniform distribution of total counts of bacteria, carbohydrates, and total organic carbon in all the cores indicates their stable nature and suggests that they can serve as useful parameters for long-term monitoring of the area after the benthic disturbance. Further studies on temporal variability in this region would not only verify the observed norms of distribution of these variables but would also help to understand restabilization processes after the simulated benthic disturbance.     

Assessing the Validity of Seismo-Acoustic Predictor Equations for Obtaining Seabed and Sub-Surface Sediment Physical Properties

The interdependence between the seismo-acoustic properties of a marine sediment and its geotechnical/physical parameters has been known for many years, and it has been postulated that this should allow the extraction of geotechnical information from seismic data. Though in the literature many correlations have been published for the surficial layer, there is a lack of information for greater sediment depths. In this article, a desktop study on a synthetic seafloor model illustrates how the application of published near-surface prediction equations to subsurface sediments (up to several tens of meters burial depth) can lead to spurious predictions. To test this further, acoustic and geotechnical properties were measured on a number of sediment core samples, some of which were subjected to loading in acoustically-equipped consolidation cells (oedometers) to simulate greater burial depth conditions. For low effective pressures (representing small burial depths extending to around 10 meters subsurface), the general applicability of established relationships was confirmed: the prediction of porosity, bulk density, and mean grain size from acoustic velocity and impedance appears generally possible for the investigated sedimentary environments. As effective pressure increases through, the observed relationships deviate more and more from the established ones for the near-surface area. For the samples tested in this study, in some instances increasing pressure even resulted in decreasing velocities. There are several possible explanations for this abnormal behavior, including the presence of gas, overconsolidation, or bimodal grain size distribution. The results indicate that an appropriate depth correction must be introduced into the published prediction equations in order to obtain reliable estimates of physical sediment properties for greater subsurface depths.     

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

This article reviews information recently available from existing marine and coastal mining for responses to environmental issues affecting marine mining at different depths. It is particularly but not exclusively concerned with those issues affecting seabed biodiversity impact and recovery. Much information has been gathered in the past 10 years from shallow mining operations for construction aggregate, diamonds, and gold, from coastal mines discharging tailings to shallow and deep water, and from experimental deep mining tests. The responses to issues identified are summarized in a series of eight tables intended to facilitate site-specific consideration. Since impacts can spread widely in the surface mixing layer SML, and can affect the biologically productive euphotic zone, the main issues considered arise from the depth of mining relative to the SML of the sea. Where mining is below the SML, the issue is whether it is environmentally better to bring the extraction products to the surface vessel for processing (and waste discharge), or to process the extraction products as much as possible on the seabed. Responses to the issues need to be sitespecific, and dependent on adequate preoperational environmental impact and recovery prediction. For deep tailings disposal from a surface vessel, there are four important environmental unknowns: (1) the possible growth of "marine snow" (bacterial flocs) utilizing the enormous quantities of fine tailings particles (hundreds or thousands of metric tons per day) as nuclei for growth, (2) the possibility that local keystone plankton and nekton species may migrate diurnally down to and beyond the depth of deep discharge and hence be subjected to tailings impact at depth, (3) the burrow-up capability of deep benthos and their ability to survive high rates of tailings deposition, and (4) the pattern and rate of dispersion of a tailings density current through the deep water column from discharge point to seabed. Actions to obtain relevant information in general and site-specifically are suggested.     

Increased Particle Fluxes at the INDEX Site Attributable to Simulated Benthic Disturbance

Particle fluxes were measured 7 m above the sea bottom during the predisturbance, disturbance, and postdisturbance periods by using time series sediment traps attached to seven deep-sea moorings deployed in the INDEX experiment site in the Central Indian Basin. The predisturbance particle fluxes varied between 22.3 to 55.1 mg m -2 day -1 . Increased and variable particle fluxes were recorded by the sediment traps during the disturbance period. The increase observed was 0.5 to 4 times more than the background predisturbance fluxes. The increases in particle fluxes (~4 times) recorded by the sediment trap located in the southwestern direction (DMS-1) were the greatest, which could be the result of preferential movement of resuspended particles generated during the deep-sea benthic disturbance along the general current direction prevailing in this area during the experimental period. Also, the traps located closer to the disturbance area recorded greater fluxes than did the traps far away, across the Deep Sea Sediment Resuspension System path. This variability in recorded particle fluxes by the traps around the disturbance area clearly indicates that physical characteristics such as grain size and density of the resuspended particles produced during the disturbance had an important effect on particle movement. The postdisturbance measurements during ~5 days showed a reduction in particle fluxes of ~50%, indicating rapid particle settlement.     

海上大直径钢管桩打桩过程中桩周土强度弱化研究

海上大直径钢管桩打桩过程中,桩周土体受到强烈扰动而发生强度弱化,掌握桩周土体强度弱化规律对于准确预测打桩过程、保证工程安全具有重要意义。为研究土体强度弱化规律,开展了环剪试验模拟打桩对桩周土体的扰动,测试土体强度随剪切速率的变化规律,建立了描述土体强度弱化规律的拟合公式,引入到打桩分析软件中。研究结果表明：土体的强度折减程度不仅与土体本身的性质有关还受到土体的埋深和剪切速率的影响,埋深越深土体强度折减程度越低,剪切速率越高土体强度折减越高,在打桩分析中可采用这里推荐的线性折减方法来模拟不同深度处土体强度的折减规律。     

Geoacoustic Inversion via Genetic Algorithm and Its Application to Manganese Sediment Identification

An acoustic inversion method using a wide-band signal and two near field receivers is proposed and applied to multiple layered seabed models including a manganese sediment. The inversion problem can be formulated into a probabilistic model comprised of signals, a forward model, and additive noise. The forward model simulates wide-band signals, such as chirp signals, and is chosen to be the source-waveletconvolution plane wave modeling method. The wavelet matching technique, using weighted least-squares fitting, estimates the sediment sound-speed and thickness on which determination of the possible numerical ranges for a priori uniform distribution is based. The genetic algorithm is applied to a global optimization problem to find a maximum a posteriori solution for determined a priori search space. Here the object function is defined by an L 2 norm of the difference between measured and modeled signals. Not only the marginal pdf but also its statistics are calculated by numerical evaluation of integrals using the samples selected during importance sampling process of the genetic algorithm.     

Interannual Sea Level Variations and Annual Tides in the Northwestern Pacific

Specific properties of the interannual sea level variations and annual tides in the Northwestern Pacific were studied. Several tide stations were monitored. The monthly mean sea level for the year of 1995 was analyzed at each tide station. A seismic event in 1995, some tectonic activity around the subject area, and the Kuroshio (the oceanic western boundary current) may possibly contaminate results which would have occurred from the astronomical annual tide alone.     

Determination of In Situ Sediment Shear Strength from Advanced Piston Corer Pullout Forces

The advanced piston corer (APC) has been used by the Ocean Drilling Program since 1985 for recovering soft sediments from the ocean floor. The pullout force measured on extracting the core barrel from the sediment is shown to correlate with the average shear strength of the sediment core measured in the ship's laboratory. A simple rule of thumb is derived relating the shear strength of the sediment to the pullout force. Multiple APC holes at individual sites allow the consistency of the pullout measurements to be assessed. The effects of different operational procedures during APC coring are also explored. Although generally applicable, the correlation between pullout force and laboratory measurements of shear strength breaks down for some APC holes, possibly because of the disturbance of some sediment types during the APC coring process. A better understanding of the physical process of APC coring, and its effect on the properties of the sediment both inside and immediately outside the core barrel, would indicate what confidence can be put on the measurement of pullout force as a way of evaluating the in situ shear strength of deep sea sediments.     

Flow Cytometric Analysis of Coastal Lagoon Bacterioplankton and Picophytoplankton: Fixation and Storage Effects

The effect of different fixation and storage protocols on the flow cytometric (FCM) simultaneous analysis of bacterioplankton and phytoplankton in coastal seawater samples (Mediterranean coastal lagoons) was investigated. FCM measurements (cell number, fluorescence and scatter characteristics) were obtained through DAPI staining. Three fixatives [glutaraldehyde (GA), formaldehyde (FA) and paraformaldehyde (PFA)] and two storage (3 months duration) methods (5 °C and −196 °C) were tested. Two dominant populations were detected in studied samples: bacteria and eukaryotic picophytoplankton. Adding fixatives (2% final concentration) appears necessary to obtain FCM exhaustive counts of all the bacteria and phytoplanktonic cells. This was related to the permeation effect of fixatives which allowed a better DAPI staining of the cells. Maximum fluorescence, i.e. optimal staining of the cells was obtained with FA or PFA, and significant lower fluorescences with GA. Fixed samples stored at 5 °C induced rapid cell loss. Only storage in liquid nitrogen of samples fixed with FA or PFA, allows mid-term (≥4 months) preservation of bacteria or picophytoplankton cell numbers, and limited evolution of DAPI-induced fluorescence and scatter characteristics.