Decreased stability of methane hydrates in marine sediments owing to phase-boundary roughness.

Below water depths of about 300 metres, pressure and temperature conditions cause methane to form ice-like crystals of methane hydrate. Marine deposits of methane hydrate are estimated to be large, amassing about 10,000 gigatonnes of carbon, and are thought to be important to global change and seafloor stability, as well as representing a potentially exploitable energy resource. The extent of these deposits can usually be inferred from seismic imaging, in which the base of the methane hydrate stability zone is frequently identifiable as a smooth reflector that runs parallel to the sea floor. Here, using high-resolution seismic sections of seafloor sediments in the Cascadia margin off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, we observe lateral variations in the base of the hydrate stability zone, including gas-rich vertical intrusions into the hydrate stability zone. We suggest that these vertical intrusions are associated with upward flow of warmer fluids. Therefore, where seafloor fluid expulsion and methane hydrate deposits coincide, the base of the hydrate stability zone might exhibit significant roughness and increased surface area. Increased area implies that significantly more methane hydrate lies close to being unstable and hence closer to dissociation in the event of a lowering of pressure due to sea-level fall.

An inverted continental Moho and serpentinization of the forearc mantle.

Volatiles that are transported by subducting lithospheric plates to depths greater than 100 km are thought to induce partial melting in the overlying mantle wedge, resulting in arc magmatism and the addition of significant quantities of material to the overlying lithosphere. Asthenospheric flow and upwelling within the wedge produce increased lithospheric temperatures in this back-arc region, but the forearc mantle (in the corner of the wedge) is thought to be significantly cooler. Here we explore the structure of the mantle wedge in the southern Cascadia subduction zone using scattered teleseismic waves recorded on a dense portable array of broadband seismometers. We find very low shear-wave velocities in the cold forearc mantle indicated by the exceptional occurrence of an 'inverted' continental Moho, which reverts to normal polarity seaward of the Cascade arc. This observation provides compelling evidence for a highly hydrated and serpentinized forearc region, consistent with thermal and petrological models of the forearc mantle wedge. This serpentinized material is thought to have low strength and may therefore control the down-dip rupture limit of great thrust earthquakes, as well as the nature of large-scale flow in the mantle wedge.