| 1. |
- Rodrigues, Luiz F, et al.
(författare)
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Origin and alteration of organic matter in hydrate-bearing sediments of the Rio Grande Cone, Brazil : evidence from biological, physical, and chemical factors.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Radiocarbon. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0033-8222 .- 1945-5755. ; 62:1, s. 197-206
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Rio Grande Cone is a major fanlike depositional feature in the continental slope of the Pelotas Basin, Southern Brazil. Two representative sediment cores collected in the Cone area were retrieved using a piston core device. In this work, the organic matter (OM) in the sediments was characterized for a continental vs. marine origin using chemical proxies to help constrain the origin of gas in hydrates. The main contribution of OM was from marine organic carbon based on the stable carbon isotope (δ13C-org) and total organic carbon/total nitrogen ratio (TOC:TN) analyses. In addition, the 14C data showed important information about the origin of the OM and we suggest some factors that could modify the original organic matter and therefore mask the “real” 14C ages: (1) biological activity that could modify the carbon isotopic composition of bulk terrestrial organic matter values, (2) the existence of younger sediments from mass wasting deposits unconformably overlying older sediments, and (3) the deep-sediment-sourced methane contribution due to the input of “old” (>50 ka) organic compounds from migrating fluids.
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| 2. |
- Braga, R., et al.
(författare)
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Modelling methane hydrate stability changes and gas release due to seasonal oscillations in bottom water temperatures on the Rio Grande cone, offshore southern Brazil
- 2020
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Ingår i: Marine and Petroleum Geology. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8172 .- 1873-4073. ; 112, s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The stability of methane hydrates on continental margins worldwide is sensitive to changes in temperature and pressure conditions. It has been shown how gradual increases in bottom water temperatures due to ocean warming over post-glacial timescales can destabilize shallow oceanic hydrate deposits, causing their dissociation and gas release into the ocean. However, bottom water temperatures (BWT) may also vary significantly over much shorter timescales, including due to seasonal temperature oscillations of the ocean bottom currents. In this study, we investigate how a shallow methane hydrate deposit responds to seasonal BWT oscillations with an amplitude of up to 1.5 °C. We use the TOUGH + HYDRATE code to model changes in the methane hydrate stability zone (MHSZ) using data from the Rio Grande Cone, in the South Atlantic Ocean off the Brazilian coast. In all the cases studied, BWT oscillations resulted in significant gaseous methane fluxes into the ocean for up to 10 years, followed by a short period of small fluxes of gaseous methane into the ocean, until they stopped completely. On the other hand, aqueous methane was released into the ocean during the 100 years simulated, for all the cases studied. During the temperature oscillations, the MHSZ recedes continuously both horizontally and, in a smaller scale, vertically, until a permanent and a seasonal region in MHSZ are defined. Sensitivity tests were carried out for parameters of porosity, thermal conductivity and initial hydrate saturation, which were shown to play an important role on the volume of methane released into the ocean and on the time interval in which such release occurs. Overall, the results indicate that in a system with no gas recharge from the bottom, seasonal temperature oscillations alone cannot account for long-term gas release into the ocean.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- da Silva Ramos, Alessandro, et al.
(författare)
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Synthesis of new CO2 hydrate inhibitors
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering. - : Elsevier. - 1875-5100 .- 2212-3865. ; 75, s. 1-6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gas hydrate is a crystalline compound made of water and mainly of gases methane and carbon dioxide under specific conditions of pressure and temperature. Increasing worldwide petroleum exploitation in deep waters, where these conditions are encountered, favours the precipitation of gas hydrate in seafloor pipelines, resulting in partial or total obstruction of petroleum flow. Brazil's largest petroleum reserves of the pre-salt interval, for example, are located in ultra-deep waters (>1500 m) and may have a gas composition of up to 80% of CO2. Huge investments are necessary to inhibit the formation of gas hydrate and to assure petroleum flow in pipelines. Here we present the results of the synthesis of new organic compounds obtained from L-Threonine, which show a high potential to be used as CO2 hydrate inhibitors. This characteristic is related to the increase carbon chain in each molecule (higher hydrophobicity) leading to a reduction on CO2 solubility in water. In addition to that, our study also shows the occurrence of the “salting out effect” and reduced water activity coefficient.
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| 5. |
- Giongo, Adriana, et al.
(författare)
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Adaption of microbial communities to the hostile environment in the Doce River after the collapse of two iron ore tailing dams
- 2020
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Ingår i: Heliyon. - : Elsevier. - 2405-8440. ; 6:8, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In November 2015, two iron ore tailing dams collapsed in the city of Mariana, Brazil. The dams' collapse generated a wave of approximately 50 million m(3) of a mixture of mining waste and water. It was a major environmental tragedy in Brazilian history, which damaged rivers, and cities 660 km away in the Doce River basin until it reached the ocean coast. Shortly after the incident, several reports informed that the concentration of metals in the water was above acceptable legal limits under Brazilian laws. Here the microbial communities in samples of water, mud, foam, and rhizosphere of Eichhornia from Doce River were analyzed for 16S and 18S rRNA-based amplicon sequencing, along with microbial isolation, chemical and mineralogical analyses. Samples were collected one month and thirteen months after the collapse. Prokaryotic communities from mud shifted drastically over time (33% Bray-Curtis similarity), while water samples were more similar (63% Bray-Curtis similarity) in the same period. After 12 months, mud samples remained with high levels of heavy metals and a reduction in the diversity of microeukaryotes was detected. Amoebozoans increased in mud samples, reaching 49% of microeukaryote abundance, with Discosea and Lobosa groups being the most abundant. The microbial communities' structure in mud samples changed adapting to the new environment condition. The characterization of microbial communities and metal-tolerant organisms from such impacted environments is essential for understanding the ecological consequences of massive anthropogenic impacts and strategies for the restoration of contaminated sites such as the Doce River.
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| 6. |
- Giongo, Adriana, et al.
(författare)
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Distinct deep subsurface microbial communities in two sandstone units separated by a mudstone layer
- 2020
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Ingår i: Geosciences Journal. - : Springer. - 1226-4806 .- 1598-7477. ; 24, s. 267-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deep subsurface microbial communities are more abundant in coarse-grained sedimentary rocks such as sandstones than in fine-grained mudstones. The low porosity and low permeability of mudstones are believed to restrict microbial life. Then, it is expected that distinct, isolated microbial communities may form in sandstones separated by mudstones. In this context, the connectivity between microbial communities in different sandstone units can be investigated to infer evolutionary patterns of diversification in space-time, which may potentially contribute with relevant data for analyses of hydraulic connectivity and stratigraphic correlation. In this work, we used high throughput DNA sequencing of a ribosomal 16S gene fragment to characterize the prokaryotic communities found in Permian sandstone samples of the same core that are separated by one mudstone interval, in the Charqueadas coal field, Parana Basin (Southern Brazil). Our samples were collected at ∌300 m deep, in porous sandstones separated by a thick mudstone package. Differences in the bacterial community structure between samples were observed for the classified OTUs, from phylum to genus. Molecular biology might be further applied as a possible tool to help to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of depositional facies, and the efficiency of low permeability rocks to compartmentalize reservoirs. Ongoing studies aim to extend the present investigation into further analyses regarding lateral changes in microbial communities present in the same sandstone units.
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| 7. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Discovery of a major seafloor methane release site in Europe: The Landsort deep, Baltic Sea.
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A recently acquired multidisciplinary dataset comprising acoustic surveys (high-resolution sub- bottom profiles, multi-beam bathymetry, and broad band mid-water echo sounder), geochemistry (gas chemical and isotopic composition, porewater chemistry), and sedimentology (core lithology and X-ray CT) in the area of the Landsort deep (450 m of depth), south of Stockholm Archipelago, revealed the existence of an extensive (20 km2) region of the seafloor where massive gas release is occurring in the form of multiple bubble streams. This new discovery represents a major seafloor methane release site in Europe and is comparable in area to other large sites worldwide such as the ones in Svalbard and in the South Atlantic Ocean associated with gas hydrate provinces. The gas is formed mostly by methane of microbial origin. Surprisingly, bubbles rise 100’s of meters above the seafloor and reach surface waters above the halocline/oxycline at around 80 m of depth. Some bubbles appear to reach the sea-air interface and their potential methane contribution to the atmosphere is under investigation. Another surprising observation is the absence of major seafloor features like pockmarks in the gas release area. The reasons for the seafloor methane release in the Landsort deep are still not entirely clear, but our preliminary acoustic and sedimentological data suggest that bottom currents may have acted to facilitate the accumulation of organic-rich sediments in a thick drift deposit during the Holocene and the modern warm period (latest 100 years). Our data further suggest that the high sedimentation rate in the drift deposit continuously supplies fresh organic matter that is quickly buried below a thin sulphate reduction zone, fueling vigorous methanogenesis and abundant methane formation. Similar methane release sites might be discovered in other known large drift deposits in the Baltic Sea.
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| 8. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Gas hydrate dissociation linked to contemporary ocean warming in the southern hemisphere
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 11:1, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ocean warming related to climate change has been proposed to cause the dissociation of gas hydrate deposits and methane leakage on the seafloor. This process occurs in places where the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone in sediments meets the overlying warmer oceans in upper slope settings. Here we present new evidence based on the analysis of a large multi-disciplinary and multi-scale dataset from such a location in the western South Atlantic, which records massive gas release to the ocean. The results provide a unique opportunity to examine ocean-hydrate interactions over millennial and decadal scales, and the first evidence from the southern hemisphere for the effects of contemporary ocean warming on gas hydrate stability. Widespread hydrate dissociation results in a highly focused advective methane flux that is not fully accessible to anaerobic oxidation, challenging the assumption that it is mostly consumed by sulfate reduction before reaching the seafloor.
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| 9. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Gas Hydrate Systems on the Brazilian Continental Margin
- 2022
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Ingår i: World Atlas of Submarine Gas Hydrates in Continental Margins. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030811853 - 9783030811860 ; , s. 343-352
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The existence of gas hydrate systems along Brazil’s vast continental margin has been known since the 1980s, based on observations of bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) in two large shelf-slope depocenters: (1) the Amazon deep-sea fan in the Foz do Amazonas Basin and (2) Rio Grande Cone in Pelotas Basin. These depocenters are both undergoing gravitational collapse above deep detachment surfaces, resulting in upslope extensional and downslope compressional domains. The BSR is discontinuous across the Amazon deep-sea fan, mainly observed at water depths of 600–2800 m and at anticlines within an upper slope thrust-fold belt related to the compressional domain of the fan. Conversely, a fairly continuous BSR extends across Rio Grande Cone at water depths of 520–3500 m, within both extensional and compressional domains. Interestingly, the well-defined BSR that spans Rio Grande Cone rises to meet the seafloor at water depths of 515–520 m, forming an unusual ‘BSR outcrop’. This phenomenon has been observed previously in only a few locations worldwide. Gas hydrates have been recovered within piston cores taken from seafloor seeps in both depocenters, and analyses reveal that gas is dominated by methane of microbial origin.
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| 10. |
- Ketzer, João Marcelo, et al.
(författare)
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Gravity complexes as a focus of seafloor fluid seepage : the Rio Grande Cone, SE Brazil
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seafloor methane emissions can affect Earth’s climate and ocean chemistry. Vast quantities of methane formed by microbial decomposition of organic matter are locked within gas hydrate and free gas on continental slopes, particularly in large areas with high sediment accumulations such as deep-sea fans. The release of methane in slope environments has frequently been associated with dissociation of gas hydrates near the edge of the gas hydrate stability zone on the upper slope, with discharges in greater water depths less understood. Here we show, using data from the Rio Grande Cone (western South Atlantic), that the intrinsic, gravity-induced downslope collapse of thick slope sediment accumulations creates structures that serve as pathways for gas migration, unlocking methane and causing seafloor emissions via giant gas flares in the water column. The observed emissions in the study region (up to 310 Mg year−1) are three times greater than estimates for the entire US North Atlantic margin and reveal the importance of collapsing sediment accumulations for ocean carbon cycling. Similar outgassing systems on the Amazon and Niger fans suggest that gravity tectonics on passive margins is a common yet overlooked mechanism driving massive seafloor methane emissions in sediment-laden continental slopes. © 2023, The Author(s).
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