Fluid-Controlling Significance of the Nosappu Fracture Zone and Conditions for the Formation of Methane Fluxes and Gas Hydrates (Sea of Okhotsk Region)

Abstract

It has been observed that the intensity of underwater gas flares unexpectedly increased after the deep-focus (625.9 km) earthquake that occurred in the Sea of Okhotsk on August 14, 2012. In this regard, we have analyzed the data resulting from interpretation of the focal mechanism for the strike-slip earthquakes which occurred in the Benioff seismic zone of the subducting Pacific Plate within the Sea of Okhotsk region over the period from 1977 to 2010. The NNW sinistral and NE dextral faults are found to form a conjugate system due to the WNW stress field. We have established that the dextral faults are mostly common at a depth of about 200 km along the Kuril Islands extension, while the sinistral ones are concentrated in the Nosappu Fracture Zone and traced to the NNW down to a depth of 680 km. The area of the gas flare discharge and gas hydrate accumulations have the same (NNW) direction. Thus, we have revealed that the Nosappu Fracture Zone appears to be a structure which controls fluid fluxes, providing permeability of the subducting slab of the Pacific Plate for ascending fluids from the lower mantle.