Resumen de The role of giant drifts as gas hydrate reservoirs on the Argentine contourite depositional system

Francisco Javier Hernández Molina, Luis Somoza, C. Marcelo Paterlini, Roberto A. Violante, Michele Rebesco, Gabriele Uenzelmann Neben, María Alejandra Arecco, Martin de Isasi

• Partially buried drifts are located in the southern-most sector of the Argentine margin. They are characterised as giant, asymmetrical elongated, mounded contourite drifts, and are described by bathymetric and multichannel seismic reflection profiles data. They were generated by Antarctic Bottom Deep Water, from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary until the middle Miocene. However, after a major palaeoceanographic change in the mid-to-late Miocene, a new oceanographic scenario was established which fossilised these drifts. These giant-drifts show seismic evidence of hydrates and free gas that are ripe for energy resources exploration, thus demonstrating the economic potential of contourite deposits in deep marine environments.