| Fluid migration is a very important process in marine sediments on margins. Studying fluids is fundamental to constrain the energy potential of margins. Methane is the predominant gas in marine sediments, deriving primarily from the degradation of organic matter. However methane could be also generated through the serpentinization of mantle rocks underlying the sedimentary cover in some specific geodynamical settings. One way to test this hypothesis is to use helium isotopes, which are known to be powerful tracers of the fluid-mantle interaction. To this purpose, a new method has been developed for the sampling and the quantitative extraction of dissolved helium from sediment pore-waters. During the Zairov2 and Vicking cruises, samples were collected in... |
