Deep sea diapirs and bottom simulating reflector in Fairway Basin (SW Pacific)

Abstract

A recent swath-bathymetry and geophysical survey of the R/V L"Atalante in the Fairway Basin between Australia and New Caledonia allowed to confirm the Cretaceous age of the creation of the basin by continental stretching. This first stage of opening of the Fairway Basin is associated with the deposition of a continuous salt/mud layer feeding today numerous diapirs, some of them piercing the 3 to 4 km thick sedimentary cover and reaching the seafloor. In close link with this salt/mud layer a Bottom Simulating Reflector indicator of gas hydrates level occupies a 70thinsp000 km2 surface at about 500 to 600 m-depth beneath the sea floor. The coexistence of both BSR and diapirs suggests a thermogenic better than biogenic origin for the gas hydrates horizon.