Origin and evolution of fracture-hosted methane hydrate deposits

Fracture-hosted methane hydrate deposits exist at many sites worldwide. These sites often have hydrate present as vein and fracture fill, as well as disseminated through the pore space. We estimate that thousands to millions of years are required to form fracture systems by hydraulic fracturing driven by occlusion of the pore system by hydrate. This time scale is a function of rates of fluid flow and permeability loss. Low-permeability layers in a sedimentary column can reduce this time if the permeability contrast with respect to the surrounding sediments is of order 10 or greater. Additionally, we find that tensile fracturing produced by hydrate heave around hydrate lenses is a viable fracture mechanism over all but the lowermost part of the hydrate stability zone. With our coupled fluid flow-hydrate formation model we assess fracture formation at four well-studied hydrate provinces: Blake Ridge offshore South Carolina, Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon, Keathley Canyon Block 151 offshore Louisiana, and the Krishna-Godavari Basin offshore India. We conclude that hydraulic fracturing due to pore pressure buildup is reasonable only at Hydrate Ridge and the Krishna-Godavari Basin owing to sediment age constraints, and that hydrate-filled fractures observed at Blake Ridge and Keathley Canyon Block 151 are formed either by hydrate heave or in preexisting fractures. Our findings offer new insight into the processes and time scales associated with fracture-hosted hydrate deposits, which help further our understanding of hydrate systems.