Distributed natural gas venting offshore along the Cascadia margin

Widespread gas venting along the Cascadia margin is investigated from acoustic water column data and reveals a nonuniform regional distribution of over 1100 mapped acoustic flares. The highest number of flares occurs on the shelf, and the highest flare density is seen around the nutrition-rich outflow of the Juan de Fuca Strait. We determine similar to 430 flow-rates at similar to 340 individual flare locations along the margin with instantaneous in situ values ranging from similar to 6 mL min(-1) to similar to 18 L min(-1). Applying a tidal-modulation model, a depth-dependent methane density, and extrapolating these results across the margin using two normalization techniques yields a combined average in situ flow-rate of similar to 88 x 10(6) kg y(-1). The average methane flux-rate for the Cascadia margin is thus estimated to similar to 0.9 g y(-1) m(-2). Combined uncertainties result in a range of these values between 4.5 and 1800% of the estimated mean values.