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82-583: The Geikie Slide is a submarine landslide on the seabed of the North Atlantic Ocean to the northwest of Scotland . The slide occurs in a region known as the Hebridean Slope , the continental slope where the seabed drops from the continental shelf surrounding Britain (a depth of c. 200 m) into the deep ocean (a depth of c. 1800 m). Since 2014 an area of 2,215 square kilometres (855 sq mi) has been designated as

164-593: A Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area under the name Geikie Slide and Hebridean Slope MPA . The Geikie Slide is named after the Scottish geologist, Sir Archibald Geikie . The ecology of the Hebridean Slope region alters with the descent into deeper, with the sands and gravels of the continental shelf giving way to mud at lower depths. The bottom of the slope provides a habitat for creatures such as mud shrimp and deep sea crab , which build burrows in

246-491: A cohesive sliding/slumping on a large scale. Local over-pressures are indicated by diapiric structures indicating gravity driven sub-vertical movement of water-rich sediment masses. Norway and Svalbard basins contain several of these giant MTDs, that span in age from Pliocene age at 2.7–2.3 Ma to ~0.5 Ma. In the Lofoten Basin, there were similar detected giant MTDs, but in this case all slides are younger than ~1 Ma. There

328-481: A density 0.5539 times that of air (0.678 kg per standard cubic meter). In the early 1800s, natural gas became known as "natural" to distinguish it from the dominant gas fuel at the time, coal gas . Unlike coal gas, which is manufactured by heating coal, natural gas can be extracted from the ground in its native gaseous form. When the use of natural gas overtook the use of coal gas in English speaking countries in

410-497: A key factor which trigger most major submarine landslides. Earthquakes provide significant environmental stresses and can promote elevated pore water pressure which leads to failure. Earthquakes triggered the Grand Banks landslide of 1929, where a 20 km submarine landslide was initiated after an earthquake. Stormwave loading and hurricanes can lead to submarine landslides in shallow regions and were recognised as one of

492-484: A major source of natural gas in the United States and Canada. Because of increased shale gas production the United States was in 2014 the number one natural gas producer in the world. The production of shale gas in the United States has been described as a "shale gas revolution" and as "one of the landmark events in the 21st century." Following the increased production in the United States, shale gas exploration

574-616: A result of glacial loading is common and operates on a wide spectrum of dimensions, ranging from relatively small scale mass wasting processes in fjords to large scale slides covering several thousand square kilometres. Factors which are significant in glacial loading induced landslides are the flexing of crust due to the loading and unloading of a fluctuating ice front, variation in drainage and groundwater seepage, quick deposition of low plasticity silts , rapid formation of moraines and till above hemipelagic interstaidal sediments. An example where glacial loading leads to submarine landsliding

656-545: A slide which was caused by weak geological layers is the Storegga slide , near Norway which had a total volume of 3,300 km . Overpressure due to rapid deposition of sediment is closely related to weak geological layers. An example of landslides caused by overpressure due to rapid deposition occurred in 1969 on the Mississippi River delta after Hurricane Camile struck the region. Earthquakes are

738-542: A synthetic crude that can be further refined into finished products, while MTG can produce synthetic gasoline from natural gas. STG+ can produce drop-in gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and aromatic chemicals directly from natural gas via a single-loop process. In 2011, Royal Dutch Shell's 140,000 barrels (22,000 m ) per day F–T plant went into operation in Qatar . Natural gas can be "associated" (found in oil fields ), or "non-associated" (isolated in natural gas fields ), and

820-407: Is a factor which contributes to submarine landslides at all scales. This has been confirmed by seafloor imaging such as swath bathymetric mapping and 3D seismic reflection data. Despite their ubiquity, very little is known about the nature and characteristics of the weak geological layers, as they have rarely been sampled and very little geotechnical work has been conducted on them. An example of

902-493: Is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal . It contains a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen , carbon monoxide , methane , and other volatile hydrocarbons , together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen , and was used in a similar way to natural gas. This is a historical technology and is not usually economically competitive with other sources of fuel gas today. Most town "gashouses" located in

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984-458: Is a schematic block flow diagram of a typical natural gas processing plant. It shows the various unit processes used to convert raw natural gas into sales gas pipelined to the end user markets. The block flow diagram also shows how processing of the raw natural gas yields byproduct sulfur, byproduct ethane, and natural gas liquids (NGL) propane, butanes and natural gasoline (denoted as pentanes +). As of mid-2020, natural gas production in

1066-399: Is also found in coal beds (as coalbed methane ). It sometimes contains a significant amount of ethane , propane , butane , and pentane —heavier hydrocarbons removed for commercial use prior to the methane being sold as a consumer fuel or chemical plant feedstock. Non-hydrocarbons such as carbon dioxide , nitrogen , helium (rarely), and hydrogen sulfide must also be removed before

1148-479: Is an ongoing debate on the generation of giant slides and their relation to Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas, methane gas , or simply gas ) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane (95%) in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes . Traces of carbon dioxide , nitrogen , hydrogen sulfide , and helium are also usually present. Methane

1230-628: Is beginning in countries such as Poland, China, and South Africa. Chinese geologists have identified the Sichuan Basin as a promising target for shale gas drilling, because of the similarity of shales to those that have proven productive in the United States. Production from the Wei-201 well is between 10,000 and 20,000 m per day. In late 2020, China National Petroleum Corporation claimed daily production of 20 million cubic meters of gas from its Changning-Weiyuan demonstration zone. Town gas

1312-556: Is colorless and odorless, and the second largest greenhouse gas contributor to global climate change after carbon dioxide. Because natural gas is odorless, odorizers such as mercaptan (which smells like rotten eggs ) are commonly added to it for safety so that leaks can be readily detected. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is formed when layers of organic matter (primarily marine microorganisms) decompose under anaerobic conditions and are subjected to intense heat and pressure underground over millions of years. The energy that

1394-417: Is correct is complicated by the rarity of giant collapses. Recent findings show that the nature of a tsunami is dependent upon volume, velocity, initial acceleration, length and thickness of the contributing landslide. Volume and initial acceleration are the key factors which determine whether a landslide will form a tsunami. A sudden deceleration of the landslide may also result in larger waves. The length of

1476-469: Is due to contrasting sediment properties within the sediment succession. Earthquakes caused by isostatic rebound due to waning glacials are typically assumed as final land-sliding triggers. In recent years, a series of giant mass transport deposits (MTDs) that are volumetrically much bigger than the deposits of the Storegga slide have been detected in several locations in the subsurface geological record of

1558-537: Is estimated to have 51,000 cubic kilometers (12,000 cu mi) of natural gas and 50 billion barrels (7.9 billion cubic meters) of natural gas condensates . Because natural gas is not a pure product, as the reservoir pressure drops when non-associated gas is extracted from a field under supercritical (pressure/temperature) conditions, the higher molecular weight components may partially condense upon isothermic depressurizing—an effect called retrograde condensation . The liquid thus formed may get trapped as

1640-694: Is heated and compressed deep underground. Methanogenic organisms produce methane from a variety of sources, principally carbon dioxide. During petroleum production, natural gas is sometimes flared rather than being collected and used. Before natural gas can be burned as a fuel or used in manufacturing processes, it almost always has to be processed to remove impurities such as water. The byproducts of this processing include ethane , propane , butanes , pentanes , and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Hydrogen sulfide (which may be converted into pure sulfur ), carbon dioxide , water vapor , and sometimes helium and nitrogen must also be removed. Natural gas

1722-403: Is natural gas produced from shale . Because shale's matrix permeability is too low to allow gas to flow in economical quantities, shale gas wells depend on fractures to allow the gas to flow. Early shale gas wells depended on natural fractures through which gas flowed; almost all shale gas wells today require fractures artificially created by hydraulic fracturing . Since 2000, shale gas has become

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1804-406: Is often stored underground [references about geological storage needed]inside depleted gas reservoirs from previous gas wells, salt domes , or in tanks as liquefied natural gas. The gas is injected in a time of low demand and extracted when demand picks up. Storage nearby end users helps to meet volatile demands, but such storage may not always be practicable. With 15 countries accounting for 84% of

1886-452: Is preparing to export natural gas. Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) is an innovative technology designed to enable the development of offshore gas resources that would otherwise remain untapped due to environmental or economic factors which currently make them impractical to develop via a land-based LNG operation. FLNG technology also provides a number of environmental and economic advantages: Many gas and oil companies are considering

1968-548: Is primarily dependent on proximity to markets (pipelines), and regulatory restrictions. Natural gas can be indirectly exported through the absorption in other physical output. The expansion of shale gas production in the US has caused prices to drop relative to other countries. This has caused a boom in energy intensive manufacturing sector exports, whereby the average dollar unit of US manufacturing exports has almost tripled its energy content between 1996 and 2012. A "master gas system"

2050-429: Is primarily used in the northern hemisphere. North America and Europe are major consumers. Often well head gases require removal of various hydrocarbon molecules contained within the gas. Some of these gases include heptane , pentane , propane and other hydrocarbons with molecular weights above methane ( CH 4 ). The natural gas transmission lines extend to the natural gas processing plant or unit which removes

2132-716: Is sometimes informally referred to simply as "gas", especially when it is being compared to other energy sources, such as oil, coal or renewables. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline , which is also shortened in colloquial usage to "gas", especially in North America. Natural gas is measured in standard cubic meters or standard cubic feet . The density compared to air ranges from 0.58 (16.8 g/mole, 0.71 kg per standard cubic meter) to as high as 0.79 (22.9 g/mole, 0.97 kg per scm), but generally less than 0.64 (18.5 g/mole, 0.78 kg per scm). For comparison, pure methane (16.0425 g/mole) has

2214-461: Is the Nyk slide of northern Norway . Slope failures due to volcanic island growth are among the largest on earth, involving volumes of several cubic kilometres. The failure occurs as large bodies of lava form above weak marine sediments which are prone to failure. Failure is particularly common on edifices which are over 2500 m but rare on edifices which are less than 2500 m. Variation in

2296-604: Is traded on a "dry gas" basis and is required to be commercially free from objectionable odours, materials, and dust or other solid or liquid matter, waxes, gums and gum forming constituents, which might damage or adversely affect operation of equipment downstream of the custody transfer point. LNG carrier ships transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) across oceans, while tank trucks can carry LNG or compressed natural gas (CNG) over shorter distances. Sea transport using CNG carrier ships that are now under development may be competitive with LNG transport in specific conditions. Gas

2378-409: Is transported at high pressure, typically above 200 bars (20,000 kPa; 2,900 psi). Compressors and decompression equipment are less capital intensive and may be economical in smaller unit sizes than liquefaction/regasification plants. Natural gas trucks and carriers may transport natural gas directly to end-users, or to distribution points such as pipelines. In the past, the natural gas which

2460-416: Is turned into liquid at a liquefaction plant, and is returned to gas form at regasification plant at the terminal . Shipborne regasification equipment is also used. LNG is the preferred form for long distance, high volume transportation of natural gas, whereas pipeline is preferred for transport for distances up to 4,000 km (2,500 mi) over land and approximately half that distance offshore. CNG

2542-427: The supply chain can result in natural gas having a similar carbon footprint to other fossil fuels overall. Natural gas can be found in underground geological formations , often alongside other fossil fuels like coal and oil (petroleum). Most natural gas has been created through either biogenic or thermogenic processes. Thermogenic gas takes a much longer period of time to form and is created when organic matter

Geikie Slide - Misplaced Pages Continue

2624-548: The 19th century, natural gas was primarily obtained as a by-product of producing oil . The small, light gas carbon chains came out of solution as the extracted fluids underwent pressure reduction from the reservoir to the surface, similar to uncapping a soft drink bottle where the carbon dioxide effervesces . The gas was often viewed as a by-product, a hazard, and a disposal problem in active oil fields. The large volumes produced could not be used until relatively expensive pipeline and storage facilities were constructed to deliver

2706-406: The 20th century, it was increasingly referred to as simply "gas." In order to highlight its role in exacerbating the climate crisis , however, many organizations have criticized the continued use of the word "natural" in referring to the gas. These advocates prefer the term "fossil gas" or "methane gas" as better conveying to the public its climate threat. A 2020 study of Americans' perceptions of

2788-490: The Mississippi delta in 1969 causing a landslide which damaged several offshore drilling platforms. Submarine landslides can pose a significant hazard when they cause a tsunami. Although a variety of different types of landslides can cause tsunami, all the resulting tsunami have similar features such as large run-ups close to the tsunami, but quicker attenuation compared to tsunami caused by earthquakes. An example of this

2870-681: The North Atlantic it is dated to a Pleistocene – Holocene age. Such large submarine landslides have been interpreted to occur most frequent either during the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG) or during the deglaciation. During glacial or deglacial times a series of geological processes modified intensely the shallow structure of the submarine continental margin. For instance, changing sea levels during glaciation and accompanying sea level drop produce enhanced erosive processes. Advancing or retreating glaciers eroded

2952-498: The Norwegian continental margin using geophysical methods. These MTDs exceed in size any slope failure of the youngest high-glacial times. Individual deposits reach up to 1 km in thickness and the largest are up to 300 km in length. The internal structure imaged with seismic methods shows sometimes a transparent or a chaotic character indicating disintegration of the slide mass. In other examples, subparallel layering supports

3034-432: The US had peaked three times, with current levels exceeding both previous peaks. It reached 24.1 trillion cubic feet per year in 1973, followed by a decline, and reached 24.5 trillion cubic feet in 2001. After a brief drop, withdrawals increased nearly every year since 2006 (owing to the shale gas boom ), with 2017 production at 33.4 trillion cubic feet and 2019 production at 40.7 trillion cubic feet. After

3116-427: The US, over one-third of households (>40 million homes) cook with gas. Natural gas dispensed in a residential setting can generate temperatures in excess of 1,100 °C (2,000 °F) making it a powerful domestic cooking and heating fuel. Stanford scientists estimated that gas stoves emit 0.8–1.3% of the gas they use as unburned methane and that total U.S. stove emissions are 28.1 gigagrams of methane. In much of

3198-523: The United States begins with localized use. In the seventeenth century, French missionaries witnessed the American Indians setting fire to natural gas seeps around lake Erie, and scattered observations of these seeps were made by European-descended settlers throughout the eastern seaboard through the 1700s. In 1821, William Hart dug the first commercial natural gas well in the United States at Fredonia, New York , United States, which led in 1858 to

3280-483: The amount of energy transferred to the falling sediment throughout the failure event. Often large landslides on the continental margin are complicated and components of slide, debris flow and turbidity current may all be apparent when examining the remains of a submarine landslide. The primary hazards associated with submarine landslides are the direct destruction of infrastructure and tsunami . Landslides can have significant economic impacts on infrastructure such as

3362-563: The behaviour of the slides is significant, with some slides barely keeping up with the growth on the upper part of the volcano while others may surge forward great distances, attaining landslide lengths greater than 200 km. Volcanic island submarine landslides occur in places such as the Hawaiian Islands and the Cape Verde Islands. Oversteepening is caused by scouring due to oceanic currents and can result in

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3444-702: The bottoms of the gashouse ovens was often used for roofing and other waterproofing purposes, and when mixed with sand and gravel was used for paving streets. Huge quantities of natural gas (primarily methane) exist in the form of clathrates under sediment on offshore continental shelves and on land in arctic regions that experience permafrost , such as those in Siberia . Hydrates require a combination of high pressure and low temperature to form. In 2013, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) announced that they had recovered commercially relevant quantities of natural gas from methane hydrate. The image below

3526-411: The buildup of the wave. Failures in shallow waters tend to produce larger tsunamis because the wave is more critical as the speed of propagation is less here. Furthermore, shallower waters are generally closer to the coast meaning that there is less radial damping by the time the tsunami reaches the shore. Conversely tsunamis triggered by earthquakes are more critical when the seabed displacement occurs in

3608-495: The continent and provided vast amounts of sediment to the continental shelf. These processes led to the building of trough mouth fans, similar to river fan deltas. The large sediment accumulation promoted slope failures that are observed in the subsurface structure as stacked debris flows above each other. Sliding happened often along weak layers that have less shear strength due to higher effective internal pore pressures e.g. from gashydrate dissolution, other fluids, or simply weakening

3690-654: The decayed organisms originally obtained from the sun via photosynthesis is stored as chemical energy within the molecules of methane and other hydrocarbons. Natural gas can be burned for heating, cooking, and electricity generation . Consisting mainly of methane, natural gas is rarely used as a chemical feedstock . The extraction and consumption of natural gas is a major industry. When burned for heat or electricity , natural gas emits fewer toxic air pollutants, less carbon dioxide, and almost no particulate matter compared to other fossil and biomass fuels. However, gas venting and unintended fugitive emissions throughout

3772-541: The deep ocean as the first wave (which is less affected by depth) has a shorter wavelength and is enlarged when travelling from deeper to shallower waters. The effects of a submarine landslide on infrastructure can be costly and landslide generated tsunami can be both destructive and deadly. Giant slides along the Norwegian margin The Storegga Slide is among the largest recent submarine landslides discovered worldwide. Like many other submarine landslides from

3854-458: The east coast of the United States and the Storegga slide off the east coast of Norway . Groundwater seepage and elevated pore water pressure can cause submarine landslides. Elevated pore water pressure causes reduced frictional resistance to sliding and can result from normal depositional processes, or can be coupled with other causes such as earthquakes, gas hydrate dissociation and glacial loading . Sediment failure on glacial margins as

3936-446: The eastern US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were simple by-product coke ovens that heated bituminous coal in air-tight chambers. The gas driven off from the coal was collected and distributed through networks of pipes to residences and other buildings where it was used for cooking and lighting. (Gas heating did not come into widespread use until the last half of the 20th century.) The coal tar (or asphalt ) that collected in

4018-446: The economic and environmental benefits of floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG). There are currently projects underway to construct five FLNG facilities. Petronas is close to completion on their FLNG-1 at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and are underway on their FLNG-2 project at Samsung Heavy Industries . Shell Prelude is due to start production 2017. The Browse LNG project will commence FEED in 2019. Natural gas

4100-480: The factors which contributed to the slides which occurred on the Mississippi delta in 1969 following Hurricane Camille . A number of studies have indicated that gas hydrates lie beneath many submarine slopes and can contribute to the triggering of a landslide. Gas hydrates are ice-like substances consisting of water and natural gas, which are stable at the temperature and pressure conditions normally found on

4182-497: The formation of the Fredonia Gas Light Company . Further such ventures followed near wells in other states, until technological innovations allowed the growth of major long distance pipelines from the 1920s onward. By 2009, 66,000 km (16,000 cu mi) (or 8%) had been used out of the total 850,000 km (200,000 cu mi) of estimated remaining recoverable reserves of natural gas. In

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4264-417: The former, often having a dipole structure at the source, tend to spread out radially and has a shorter wavelength (the rate at which a wave loses energy is inversely proportional to its wavelength, in other words the longer the wavelength of a wave, the slower it loses energy) while the latter disperses little as it propagates away perpendicularly to the source fault . Testing whether a given tsunami model

4346-461: The fuel found that, across political identifications, the term "methane gas" led to better estimates of its harms and risks. Natural gas can come out of the ground and cause a long-burning fire. In ancient Greece , the gas flames at Mount Chimaera contributed to the legend of the fire-breathing creature Chimera . In ancient China , gas resulting from the drilling for brines was first used by about 400 BC. The Chinese transported gas seeping from

4428-435: The gas needs to be cooled down and compressed, as the friction in the pipeline causes the gas to heat up. Many existing pipelines in the US are close to reaching their capacity, prompting some politicians representing northern states to speak of potential shortages. The large trade cost implies that natural gas markets are globally much less integrated, causing significant price differences across countries. In Western Europe ,

4510-517: The gas pipeline network is already dense. New pipelines are planned or under construction between Western Europe and the Near East or Northern Africa . Whenever gas is bought or sold at custody transfer points, rules and agreements are made regarding the gas quality. These may include the maximum allowable concentration of CO 2 , H 2 S and H 2 O . Usually sales quality gas that has been treated to remove contamination

4592-896: The gas to consumer markets. Until the early part of the 20th century, most natural gas associated with oil was either simply released or burned off at oil fields. Gas venting and production flaring are still practised in modern times, but efforts are ongoing around the world to retire them, and to replace them with other commercially viable and useful alternatives. In addition to transporting gas via pipelines for use in power generation, other end uses for natural gas include export as liquefied natural gas (LNG) or conversion of natural gas into other liquid products via gas to liquids (GTL) technologies. GTL technologies can convert natural gas into liquids products such as gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. A variety of GTL technologies have been developed, including Fischer–Tropsch (F–T), methanol to gasoline (MTG) and syngas to gasoline plus (STG+). F–T produces

4674-526: The ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to boil salt water to extract the salt in the Ziliujing District of Sichuan . Natural gas was not widely used before the development of long distance pipelines in the early twentieth century. Before that, most use was near to the source of the well, and the predominant gas for fuel and lighting during the industrial revolution was manufactured coal gas. The history of natural gas in

4756-442: The higher-molecular weight hydrocarbons to produce natural gas with energy content between 35–39 megajoules per cubic metre (950–1,050 British thermal units per cubic foot). The processed natural gas may then be used for residential, commercial and industrial uses. Natural gas flowing in the distribution lines is called mid-stream natural gas and is often used to power engines which rotate compressors. These compressors are required in

4838-612: The largest proven gas reserves. Sources that consider that Russia has by far the largest proven reserves include the US Central Intelligence Agency (47,600 km ) and Energy Information Administration (47,800 km ), as well as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (48,700 km ). Contrarily, BP credits Russia with only 32,900 km , which would place it in second, slightly behind Iran (33,100 to 33,800 km , depending on

4920-458: The local effect) and radial damping (which reduces the distal effect). The size of landslide-generated tsunamis depends both on the geological details of the landslide (such as its Froude number ) and also on assumptions about the hydrodynamics of the model used to simulate tsunami generation, thus they have a large margin of uncertainty. Generally, landslide-induced tsunamis decay more quickly with distance than earthquake-induced tsunamis, as

5002-404: The location of landslides such as Storegga and Traenadjupet is related to weak geological layers. However the position of these weak layers is determined by regional variation in sedimentation style, which itself is controlled by large scale environmental factors such as climate change between glacial and interglacial conditions. Even when considering all the above listed factors, in the end it

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5084-435: The movements are mutually exclusive, for example a slide cannot be a fall. Some types of mass movements, such as slides, can be distinguished by the disrupted step like morphology which shows that there was only minor movement of the failed mass. The displaced material on a slide moves on a thin region of high strain. In flows the slide zone will be left bare and the displaced mass may be deposited hundreds of kilometres away from

5166-436: The mud. Sea urchin , sea spider , and deep sea worms are also found here, and the area is a breeding ground for fish such as blue ling . This Scottish location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Submarine landslide Submarine landslides have different causes which relate to both the geological attributes of the landslide material and transient environmental factors affecting

5248-433: The natural gas can be transported. Natural gas extracted from oil wells is called casinghead gas (whether or not truly produced up the annulus and through a casinghead outlet) or associated gas. The natural gas industry is extracting an increasing quantity of gas from challenging, unconventional resource types : sour gas , tight gas , shale gas , and coalbed methane . There is some disagreement on which country has

5330-477: The origin of the slide. The displaced sediment of fall will predominantly travel through the water, falling, bouncing and rolling. Despite the variety of different landslides present in submarine environment, only slides, debris flow and turbidity currents provide a substantial contribution to gravity driven sediment transport. Recent advances in 3-D seismic mapping have revealed spectacular images of submarine landslides off Angola and Brunei , showing in detail

5412-441: The pores of the gas reservoir get depleted. One method to deal with this problem is to re-inject dried gas free of condensate to maintain the underground pressure and to allow re-evaporation and extraction of condensates. More frequently, the liquid condenses at the surface, and one of the tasks of the gas plant is to collect this condensate. The resulting liquid is called natural gas liquid (NGL) and has commercial value. Shale gas

5494-545: The rupture of fibre optic submarine communications cables and pipelines and damage to offshore drilling platforms and can continue onwards on slope angles as low as 1°. An example of submarine cable damage was discovered in the Grand Banks slide of 1929 where the landslide and resulting turbidity current broke a series of submarine cables up to nearly 600 km away from the beginning of the slide. Further destruction of infrastructure occurred when Hurricane Camille hit

5576-402: The seabed. When the temperature rises or the pressure drops the gas hydrate becomes unstable allowing some of the hydrate to dissociate and discharge bubble phase natural gas . If pore water flow is impeded then this gas charging leads to excess pore water pressure and decreased slope stability. Gas hydrate dissociation is thought to have contributed to slides at water depths of 1000 to 1300 m off

5658-417: The sediment plays a key role in the mobilization into flows and the distances that the slide will travel. If the sediment is a soft, fluid material then the slide is likely to travel great distances and a flow is more likely to occur. However, if the sediment is stiffer then the slide will only travel a short distance and a flow is less likely to occur. Furthermore, the ability to flow may also be dependent upon

5740-587: The size of blocks transported and how they moved along the sea floor. It was initially thought that submarine landslides in cohesive sediments systematically and sequentially developed downslope from slide to debris flow to turbidity current through slowly increasing disintegration and entrainment of water. However it is now thought that this model is likely to be an oversimplification, as some landslides travel many hundreds of kilometres without any noticeable change into turbidity currents, as shown in figure 3 while others completely change into turbidity currents near to

5822-478: The slide influences both the wavelength and the maximum wave height. Travel time or run out distance of slide will also influence the resulting tsunami wavelength. In most cases the submarine landslides are noticeably subcritical, that is the Froude number (the ratio of slide speed to wave propagation) is significantly less than one. This suggests that the tsunami will move away from the wave generating slide preventing

5904-550: The source). It is estimated that there are about 900,000 km of "unconventional" gas such as shale gas, of which 180,000 km may be recoverable. In turn, many studies from MIT , Black & Veatch and the US Department of Energy predict that natural gas will account for a larger portion of electricity generation and heat in the future. The world's largest gas field is the offshore South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field , shared between Iran and Qatar. It

5986-428: The source. This variation in the development of different submarine landslides is associated with the development of velocity vectors in the displaced mass. The in-place stress, sediment properties (particularly density), and morphology of the failed mass will determine whether the slide stops a short distance along the rupture surface or will transform into a flow which travels great distances. The initial density of

6068-444: The submarine environment. Common causes of landslides include: i) presence of weak geological layers, ii) overpressure due to rapid accumulation of sedimentary deposits , iii) earthquakes , iv) storm wave loading and hurricanes , v) gas hydrate dissociation, vi) groundwater seepage and high pore water pressure, vii) glacial loading, viii) volcanic island growth, and ix) oversteepening. The presence of weak geological layers

6150-654: The third peak in December 2019, extraction continued to fall from March onward due to decreased demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the US . The 2021 global energy crisis was driven by a global surge in demand as the world quit the economic recession caused by COVID-19, particularly due to strong energy demand in Asia. Because of its low density, it is not easy to store natural gas or to transport it by vehicle. Natural gas pipelines are impractical across oceans, since

6232-412: The transmission line to pressurize and repressurize the mid-stream natural gas as the gas travels. Typically, natural gas powered engines require 35–39 MJ/m (950–1,050 BTU/cu ft) natural gas to operate at the rotational name plate specifications. Several methods are used to remove these higher molecular weighted gases for use by the natural gas engine. A few technologies are as follows: In

6314-402: The triggering of submarine landslides. In some cases the relationship between the cause and the resulting landslide can be quite clear (e.g. the failure of an oversteepened slope) while in other cases the relationships may not be so obvious. In most cases more than one factor may contribute towards the initiation of a landslide event. This is clearly seen on the Norwegian continental slope where

6396-502: The worldwide extraction, access to natural gas has become an important issue in international politics, and countries vie for control of pipelines. In the first decade of the 21st century, Gazprom , the state-owned energy company in Russia, engaged in disputes with Ukraine and Belarus over the price of natural gas, which have created concerns that gas deliveries to parts of Europe could be cut off for political reasons. The United States

6478-406: Was calculated that the landslide needed an earthquake for it to ultimately be initiated. The environments in which submarine landslides are commonly found in are fjords , active river deltas on the continental margin , submarine canyon fan systems, open continental slopes , and oceanic volcanic islands and ridges. There are a variety of different types of submarine mass movements. All of

6560-494: Was invented in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s, ending any necessity for flaring. Satellite and nearby infra-red camera observations, however, shows that flaring and venting are still happening in some countries. Natural gas is used to generate electricity and heat for desalination . Similarly, some landfills that also discharge methane gases have been set up to capture the methane and generate electricity. Natural gas

6642-567: Was recovered in the course of recovering petroleum could not be profitably sold, and was simply burned at the oil field in a process known as flaring . Flaring is now illegal in many countries. Additionally, higher demand in the last 20–30 years has made production of gas associated with oil economically viable. As a further option, the gas is now sometimes re- injected into the formation for enhanced oil recovery by pressure maintenance as well as miscible or immiscible flooding. Conservation, re-injection, or flaring of natural gas associated with oil

6724-532: Was the July 17, 1998, Papua New Guinean landslide tsunami where waves up to 15 m high impacted a 20 km section of the coast killing 2,200 people, yet at greater distances the tsunami was not a major hazard. This is due to the comparatively small source area of most landslide tsunami (relative to the area affected by large earthquakes) which causes the generation of shorter wavelength waves. These waves are greatly affected by coastal amplification (which amplifies

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