HR: 10:20h
AN: V22C-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Mud Volcanoes Formation And Occurrence
AU: * Guliyev, I S
EM: iguliyev@gia.az
AF: Azerbaijan National academy of Sciences, H.Javid av., 29A, Baku, Az1143, Azerbaijan
AB: Mud volcanoes are natural phenomena, which occur throughout the globe. They are found at a greater or lesser scale in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, on Sakhalin Island, in West Kuban, Italy, Romania, Iran, Pakistan, India, Burma, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Mexico, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and Ecuador. Mud volcanoes are most well-developed in Eastern Azerbaijan, where more than 30% of all the volcanoes in the world are concentrated. More than 300 mud volcanoes have already been recognized here onshore or offshore, 220 of which lie within an area of 16,000 km2. Many of these mud volcanoes are particularly large (up to 400 m high). The volcanoes of the South Caspian form permanent or temporary islands, and numerous submarine banks. Many hypotheses have been developed regarding the origin of mud volcanoes. Some of those hypotheses will be examined in the present paper. Model of spontaneous excitation-decompaction (proposed by Ivanov and Guliev, 1988, 2002). It is supposed that one of major factors of the movement of sedimentary masses and formation of hydrocarbon deposits are phase transitions in sedimentary basin. At phase transitions there are abnormal changes of physical and chemical parameters of rocks. Abnormal (high and negative) pressure takes place. This process is called as excitation of the underground environment with periodicity from several tens to several hundreds, or thousand years. The relationship between mud volcanism and the generation of hydrocarbons, particularly methane, is considered to be a critical factor in mud volcano formation. At high flow rates the gas and sediment develops into a pseudo-liquid state and as flow increases the mass reaches the "so-called hover velocity" where mass transport begins. The mass of fluid moves as a quasi-uniform viscous mass through the sediment pile in a piston like manner until expelled from the surface as a "catastrophic eruption". Model of buoyancy drive (by Brown, 1990). Brown's basic hypothesis is similar to Ivanov and Guliev and may be summarized briefly as follows: -in situations where rapid sedimentation is occurring mud may be driven to the surface by buoyancy forces due to bulk density contrasts between mud and overlying sediment cover. Such density contrasts may be simply the result of compaction -disequilibrium, but more importantly may be related to gas expansion when fluids are transported to shallower depths with lower pressure and temperature conditions. Synthetic model had been proposed by I.Lerche, E.Bagirov, I.Guliyev (1997). The model includes the following studies: The starting point of the mud volcanoes begins with the formation of a zone of decompaction as a consequence of a high rate of gas generation. The mud body starts to rise under buoyancy. The excess pressure inside the mud intrusion is less than in surrounding formation. As a result, fluid flow toward the body of mud volcanoes. The body of the mud volcanoes then grows, increasing the buoyancy forces, with further drive the mud. If the rate of gas generation more thôn gas flow, causing exsolving of gas to free-phase gas. If there are open faults and fractures which cross the body of mud volcanoes, then gas and mud can penetrate through the faults, and so from gryphons and salses on the surface. A mud volcanoes can be consider as a huge accumulation of gas, where as the oil is concentrated on the flanks of the mud body.
DE: 8426 Mud volcanism
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting