New seismic study of deep sea gas hydrates results in greatly improved resolution

Abstract
A multichannel seismic survey has resulted in greatly improved resolution of structural details of deep sea gas hydrates off the west coast of Canada, revealing numerous geological features not before evident. The survey using the Naval Research Laboratory deep‐towed acoustic/geophysics system (DTAGS), provided high‐resolution images and layer velocities more than 10 times better than those obtained in the past using conventional systems. Vertical resolution within 2 m and horizontal resolution within 20 m were achieved.The work demonstrates that high‐resolution seismic surveys with deep towed multichannel systems can provide important new information about pathways of fluid and gas migration that control the formation of gas hydrates. Conventional surface‐towed seismic systems are unable to do this.