Sedimentological properties of hydrate-bearing sediments and their relation to gas hydrate saturation in the eastern Nankai Trough

This study presents details of the sedimentological features such as core lithologies and particle size distributions, and their relation to gas hydrate saturation of the eastern Nankai Trough sediments. During the 2012 JOGMEC/JAPEX Pressure coring operation at the eastern Nankai Trough offshore Japan, one site was drilled and a gas hydrate-bearing sediment core in the gas hydrate stability zone above the seismic bottom-simulating reflector (BRS) was recovered by pressure coring successfully. The gas hydrate-bearing sediment core mainly consists of channel-fill turbidite sand, repeated turbidite sequences with hemipelagic mud, and hemipelagic mud from bottom to top of the core. It has been reported that gas hydrate is preferentially accumulated in certain types of sediments, for example in coarse-grained turbidite sands and in diatomaceous silty sediments with low capillary force. This fact suggests that sediment composition also plays an essential role of gas hydrate saturation in addition to particle size. According to the sediments from the eastern Nankai Trough, the distributions of coarse-grained turbidite sands appear to be one of the most important factors controlling the natural gas hydrate occurrences owing to no significant sediment composition changes. The eastern Nankai Trough sediment can thus be appropriate material for evaluating particle size effects on gas hydrate saturation in natural sediments. The stratigraphic profiles of sedimentological features imply that the median size and sorting of the host sediment are key sediment properties to control the stratigraphic gas hydrate saturation in channel-fill turbidite sand and repeated turbidite sequences with hemipelagic mud. This study is financially supported by the Research Consortium for Methane Hydrate Resources in Japan (the MH21 Research Consortium).