(Table S1) Earthquakes detected in RSAM and BPR record with date and time, magnitude and location with distance to sonar-site

DOI

Long-term monitoring over 1 year revealed high temporal variability of gas emissions at a cold seep in 1250 m water depth offshore Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Data from the North East Pacific Time series Underwater Networked Experiment observatory operated by Ocean Networks Canada were used. The site is equipped with a 260 kHz Imagenex sonar collecting hourly data, conductivity-temperature-depth sensors, bottom pressure recorders, current meter, and an ocean bottom seismograph. This enables correlation of the data and analyzing trigger mechanisms and regulating criteria of gas discharge activity. Three periods of gas emission activity were observed: (a) short activity phases of few hours lasting several months, (b) alternating activity and inactivity of up to several day-long phases each, and (c) a period of several weeks of permanent activity. These periods can neither be explained by oceanographic conditions nor initiated by earthquakes. However, we found a clear correlation of gas emission with bottom pressure changes controlled by tides. Gas bubbles start emanating during decreasing tidal pressure. Tidally induced pressure changes also influence the subbottom fluid system by shifting the methane solubility resulting in exsolution of gas during falling tides. These pressure changes affect the equilibrium of forces allowing free gas in sediments to emanate into the water column at decreased hydrostatic load. We propose a model for the fluid system at the seep, fueled by a constant subsurface methane flux and a frequent tidally controlled discharge of gas bubbles into the ocean, transferable to other gas emission sites in the world's oceans.

Earthquakes detected in RSAM and BPR record with date and time, magnitude and location (Latitude and Longitude) with distance to sonar-site. The azimuth is the angle between sonar and earthquake location. Time delays for P- and S-wave were calculated using standard Earth reference velocity model.RSAM: Real-time Seismic Amplitude Measurement.BPR: bottom pressure recorder.

Supplement to: Römer, Miriam; Riedel, Michael; Scherwath, Martin; Heesemann, Martin; Spence, George D (2016): Tidally controlled gas bubble emissions: A comprehensive study using long-term monitoring data from the NEPTUNE cabled observatory offshore Vancouver Island. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 17(9), 3797-3814

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.868921
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GC006528
Related Identifier https://store.pangaea.de/Publications/Roemer-etal_2016/Supporting_information.zip
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.868921
Provenance
Creator Römer, Miriam ORCID logo; Riedel, Michael ORCID logo; Scherwath, Martin ORCID logo; Heesemann, Martin ORCID logo; Spence, George D
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2016
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 1075 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-102.180W, -10.800S, 102.890E, 56.298N); off west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Temporal Coverage Begin 2012-06-19T13:40:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2013-06-21T05:18:00Z