Widespread Methane Seep Activities along the Western Slope of the Okinawa Trough, East China Sea

The westem slope of the Okinawa trough has been considered to experience important methane seep activities. Abundant terrigenous sediments supply and widely developed normal faults make this area an ideal place for methane production, methane fluids migration and associated anaerobic oxidation of methane.

The Evidence from Inclusions in Pumices for the Direct Degassing of Volatiles from the Magma to the Hydrothermal Fluids in the Okinawa Trough

This article presents the evidence in support of the direct magma degassing as the principal mechanism of volatiles releasing into the hydrothermal fluids in the Okinawa Trough, as contrasted to the argument for the hydrothermal stripping of volatiles from the volcanic rocks.\ Laser Raman microprobe and stepped-heating techniques are employed to determine the compositions and contents of the volatiles in pumices in the middle Okinawa Trough. The results show that the volatiles are similar to the gases in the hydrothermal fluids and hydrothermal minerals in composition, the mean percent content of each component and variation trend. This indicates the direct influence of magma degassing on the hydrothermal fluids. In addition, the contents of volatiles in pumices are rather low and do not support the hydrothermal stripping as the main mechanism to enrich the fluids with gases. The results are consistent with the idea that the direct magma degassing is more important than hydrothermal stripping in supplying gases to the hydrothermal fluids in the Okinawa Trough.

Geochemical constraints on the methane seep activity in western slope of the middle Okinawa Trough, the East China Sea

Anaerobic oxidation of methane and sulfate reduction was studied in the pore waters of four cores at two stations of the middle Okinawa Trough. Pore water vertical distributions of sulfate, methane, sulfide, total alkalinity, ammonium, and phosphate were determined in this study. Our results show strong linear sulfate concentration gradients of 6.83 mmol/L m?1 in Core A and 5.96 mmol/L m?1 in Core C, which were collected from two stations. Concurrent variations of methane, total alkalinity and hydrogen sulfide all exhibit steep increases with depth at both cores, which indicate active methane seep activities around two stations. Pore water ammonium and phosphate concentrations reveal minor influences of organic matter degradation on sulfate reduction at two stations. Sulfate methane interface(SMI) was extrapolated from linear sulfate profiles in methane seep cores. Shallower SMI depths(A: 4.9 mbsf; C: 5.4 mbsf) indicate strong methane fluxes and active anaerobic oxidation of methane in the underlying sediments.