Heat flow and quantity of methane deduced from a gas hydrate field in the vicinity of the Dnieper Canyon, northwestern Black Sea

Seismic reflection data document for the first time the existence of a BSR in a limited area west of the Dnieper Canyon in the northwestern Black Sea. Seismic wide-angle data suggest that gas hydrates occupy in average 15+/-2% of the pore space in a zone of 100 m in thickness. A conservative quantification of the amount of methane associated with this gas hydrate occurrence is about 12+/-3x10(11) m(3) (0.6+/-0.2 Gt of methane carbon). Conductive heat flow deduced from the BSR depth is in the range of 21+/-6 to 55+/-15 mW m(-2).