RV POURQUOI PAS?

5 November - 8 December 2011
Libreville - Port Gentil

In the frame of the Franco-German (IFREMER-MARUM) Guineco-MeBo project with the RV POURQUOI PAS? the formation and development of pockmark structures in sediments of Niger-Delta shall be investigated. Pockmarks are evidence of fluid- and gas circulations which are in exchange with shale diapirism of the underground in this area. Up to now investigations had been limited to structures near the surface, so the processes and stadia of their formation are barely understood. We are planning to do MeBo drillings of 14-60 m depth in a pockmark field which had already been well characterized through industry by high resolution bathymetric and 3D seismic AUV mapping. With our investigations different stadia in the pockmark formation shall be determined. This will be a considerable contribution to the geological understanding of pockmark formation. In order to establish thermo-mechanical models of the fluid flow at individual pockmarks, geomechanical investigations with Penfeld Penetrometer, as well as in-situ measurements of the pore pressure and the heat flow will be effected.

Our study area in the pockmark field at Niger-Delta (from Sultan et al. 2010)

Ifremer, Brest

Genavir, Brest