Resumen de Volcanes de fango, chimeneas y gases hidratos: manantiales de hidrocarburos naturales en el Golfo de Cádiz
Luis Somoza, L. Pinheiro, Víctor Díaz del Río Español, Teresa Medialdea, V. Magalhaes, Francisco Javier González, Ricardo León
Numerous seafloor features associated with hydrocarbon seeps have been identified in the Gulf of Cadiz: mud volcanoes, mud-carbonate mounds, pockmarks and slides. Most of the mud volcanoes are found in the eastern domain of the Gulf of Cadiz, which corresponds to the Betic-Rifean Margin, at 400-1400 m depth and follow NE-SW and NW-SE main trends. Scattered mud volcanoes have also been recognized in the lower slope at 2400-3900 m depth. Gas hydrates have been recovered in most of the mud volcanoes surveyed. Dominant tectonic structures are thrust faults, extensional faults, strike-slip faults, and diapiric ridges developed under a compressional regime related to the NW-directed convergent motion between the European and African plates. All these tectonic structures have provided escape pathways for overpressured material and fluids along the sedimentary column and eventually the buildup of mud volcanoes as, probably, episodic events during the Quaternary
