Appraisal of gas-hydrate/free-gas from VP/VS ratio in the Makran accretionary prism

Existence of gas-hydrate in the marine sediments elevates both the P- and S-wave seismic velocities, whereas even a small amount of underlying free-gas decreases the P-wave velocity considerably and the S-wave velocity remains almost unaffected. Study of both P- and S-wave seismic velocities or their ratio (V-P/V-S) for the hydrate-bearing sediment provides more information than that obtained by the P- or S-wave velocity alone for the quantitative assessment of gas-hydrate. We estimate the P- and S-wave seismic velocities across a BSR (interface between gas-hydrate and free-gas bearing sediments) using the travel time inversion followed by a constrained AVA modeling of multi channel seismic (MCS) data at two locations in the Makran accretionary prism. Using this V-P/V-S ratio, we then quantify the amount of gas-hydrate and free-gas based on two rock-physics models. The result shows an estimate of 12-14.5% gas-hydrate and 4.5-5.5% free-gas of the pore volume based on first model, and 13-20% gas-hydrate and 3-3.5% free-gas of the pore volume based on the second model, respectively. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.