Origin of Fluid in Submarine Mud Volcanoes

Submarine mud volcanoes are remarkable geological features on the seafloor, which are probably formed by mud breccia extruded from sub-seafloor sediment layers to the seafloor. Most of such volcanoes are found near the continental margin. The driving force of mud volcanism is thought to be unusually high pressure within the deep sedimentary layer and the release of that high pressure. It is important to know the origins of fluids in a mud volcano, because the production of low-density fluid and/or gas production in the deep sedimentary layer has been assumed to be one of the most probable sources of the pressure. Therefore, geochemical studies of pore fluids have been done at various mud volcanoes to identify the fluid origin. These studies revealed common chemical characteristics of the fluids, indicating the effects of dehydration of clay minerals. Also, the fluids contain hydrocarbon gases derived from thermocatalyte decomposition of sedimentary organic matter. These characteristics suggest that the mud volcano fluids must originate at a depth in the sedimentary layer greater than 2 km. In some mud volcano fields in the active continental margin, it is proposed that fluid in the mud volcano has migrated through faults from greater depths than the original depth of extruded sediments. Such fluid migration may be another source of high pressure in sedimentary layers.