Activity, Mud Migration, and Formation Mechanisms of Helgoland and Dvurechenskii Mud Volcanoes, Black Sea

Abstract

The main motivations of this study was, to use the new near-to-seafloor remotely-operated instruments to obtain detailed information on the morphology, sedimentology and gas emissions of two neighboring mud volcanoes; the Dvurechenskii Mud Volcano (DMV) and the Helgoland Mud Volcano (HMV) located in the Sorokin Trough, northern Black Sea at water depths of >2,000 mbsl. The resulting deep marine data sets include high resolution micro-bathymetry and backscatter data of the mud volcanoes and the surrounding seafloor, sediment and water column temperatures, sediment samples, and in-situ HD-photographic imaging. This allowed us to obtain new insights into the factors controlling mud volcanoes I) formation and development, II) activity, including horizontal and vertical mud migration processes, III) the inter-relationship of neighboring diapir- and fault-formed mud volcanoes and, IV) mud volcano gas emissions.