Adriano is a Postdoc on "Venting and piercement structures" project in PGP in Oslo
University. Since 2005 he moved to Oslo to focus on mud volcanism dynamics during
dormant and active stage. He combines fieldwork observations collected onshore and
offshore (Azerbaijan, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Norwegian Sea) with laboratory
analyses on fluids, sediment and rocks collected at seepage sites. He also integrates
studies on offshore near subsurface hydrocarbon plumbing systems where authigenic
carbonates precipitation coupled with methane seepage and microbial activity occur (e.g.
pockmarks, mud volcanoes, diapiric structures). Within the PGP synergy between
geology and physics he is trying to combine field and laboratory observations with
analogue and numerical modeling conducted in PGP.
Adriano holds a: MSc degree in Marine Geology from University of Genoa (1997). He
worked onshore and offshore as QC-Geophysicist for Baker Hughes-Western
Geophysical (1997-2000) and then moved back to academia to complete a PhD degree in
Hydrocarbon Seepage Systems at the University of Aberdeen (2004). During 2004-2005
he worked as Research Assistant at the University of Aberdeen
Main research interests: mud volcanism, plumbing systems at hydrocarbon seepage sites,
authigenic carbonates precipitation, geophysics, deep-marine sedimentology, deep-water
reefs.
Mud volcanism
Authigenic carbonates
Injected sandstones
Fluid inclusion studies
Fieldwork and scientific cruises
Mud volcanism
Selected reading:
Authigenic carbonates
Chemosynthetic authigenic carbonates are the result of microbially-mediated
processes that occur on the seafloor where hydrocarbon-rich fluids are seeping. Although
numerous studies conducted on modern and ancient hydrocarbon seep sites (or so-called
cold seeps) are documented, there are few general studies in the literature which
synthesise our knowledge of these phenomena and what they tell us about the subsurface
plumbing system at these sites. Moreover, the fluid expulsion processes and the
consequences for related biological communities are still uncertain. Likewise the
processes that drive the precipitation of carbonates that characterise these sites are still
not completely understood. The formation of these carbonate deposits is attributed to the
oxidation of methane, mediated by a consortium of microorganisms. Modern and ancient
seeps are present at active and passive margins where features such as mud volcanoes,
pockmarks, active faults and fractures, mud diapirs, and injected sandstones occur.
Our areas of interests include samples from seepage features (including mud
volcanoes) all over the Black Sea and cold seep sites from the North Sea, Norwegian Sea
and Barbados.
Geophysical surveys allowed characterization of gas-charged sediments and targeting
of seepage sites. Acoustic and seismic records reveal that at these locations the release of
the hydrocarbon-rich fluids mainly occur from reservoirs sited below the seepage sites or
presumably from the dissolution of gas hydrates. Petrographic analysis of the carbonate
cements show the occurrence of aragonite, calcite and magnesium calcite, whose
distribution is controlled by the concentration of sulphates and the flux of seeping fluids.
Microbial mats, observed during underwater TV recording, and biofilms observed
associated with carbonate cements and framboidal pyrite, support the theory of methane
oxidation operated by archea and sulphate-reducing bacteria. Carbon and oxygen stable
isotope data for carbonate cements allow the distinction of contributions for all the
carbon sources, confirming that methane is the major source, and showing that carbonate
precipitated at seafloor temperatures.
Both the size of the minerals and the shape of the authigenic carbonate deposits
appear to be related to the seepage conditions and the lithology of the enclosing host
sediment. The slabs retrieved on the seafloor or on the subsurface from mud volcano
structures consisted of micrite-cemented mud breccia and hemipelagic sedimentary units
present. At these sites, finer grained sediments (or gas hydrates) appear to buffer the fluid
seepage thereby enhancing the precipitation of authigenic carbonate in the more porous
layers, forming slab shaped deposits. Most of the irregularly shaped deposits from the
studied pockmarks showed micritic/sparitic calcite- and occasionally aragonite-cemented
hemipelagic sediments with associated chemosynthetic fauna. These chemoherms arise
when fluids seep through the sediment allowing a diffuse colonization of chemosynthetic
fauna on the seafloor that becomes gradually cemented. The formation of tubular features
in the subsurface seems to occur when methane-saturated impermeable sediments include
weakness zones where the seepage of hydrocarbon-rich fluids is concentrated. Irregularly
shaped deposits consisting of sparitic, zoned carbonate, devoid of hemipelagic sediments,
are typical of settings where fluids seep through open fractures in more consolidated
sediments.
Selected reading:
Mazzini, A., Aloisi, G., Akhmanov, G.G., Parnell, J., Cronin, B. and Murphy, P., 2005.
Integrated petrographic and geochemical record of hydrocarbon seepage on the
Vøring Plateau. Geological Society, 162: 815-827.
Mazzini, A., Ivanov, M.K., Parnell, J., Stadnitskaya, A., Cronin, B., Poludetkina, E.,
Mazurenko, L., and van Weering T.C.E., 2004. Methane-related authigenic
carbonates from the Black Sea: geochemical characterization and relation to seeping
fluids. Marine Geology, 212 (1-4), 153-181.
Injected sandstones
Injected sandstones is a phenomenon that is widely studied and observed offshore in
exploited oil production areas such as the North Sea is are increasingly recognized in new
petroleum provinces, such as the Angolan and Nigerian off-shore and the Norwegian Sea.
The principal triggering factors for sand injections are considered to be tectonic stress
and earthquake-induced liquefaction, loading increasing interstitial pore overpressure and
external fluid-induced fluidisation. The role of this last factor in the injection mechanisms
has been gathering increasing attention. In the case of a large scale intrusion at Yellow
Bank Creek in California and cubic kilometre-scale North Sea intrusions, the external
fluids are attributed an important role in the injection process. Often, fluid overpressures
generate the pathways for fluid escape through (hydraulic) fractures and injected
sandstones but, more importantly, once created these remain fluid escape pathways.
Despite some circumstantial evidence, the involvement of hydrocarbons in the sand
injection process has not been proven.
No study has as yet been previously performed linking fluid escape through seeps,
fractures and sand injectites associated with hydrocarbon reservoirs. In particular in the
North Sea hydrocarbon province the presence of pockmarks and methane/hydrocarbonrelated carbonate (cold-seeps) can occur on the sea floor above petroleum reservoirs.
Our study focuses on comparative analyses performed on injected sandstones and
degassing features forming during hydrocarbon leakage above the Paleogene reservoir of
the Gryphon Oil Field (northern North Sea) Similarities in spatial distribution,
petrographic and geochemical analyses suggest a related diagenetic history for the two
features. There is an association of seepage carbonate deposits, and injected sandstones
above hydrocarbon reservoirs. The modelling of this plumbing system suggests that
similar pathways can be used for the seepage of hydrocarbon-rich fluids and sand
injections. This study supports the hypothesis that methane migration can be a significant
driving factor in the large-scale sand remobilisation occurring in numerous Paleogene
deep-water sandstones in the northern North Sea. We suggest that gas influx in the
Eocene deep-water sandstones increased pore fluid pressures during early burial and
decreased the grain framework stability, inducing liquefaction and sand injection. Gas
involvement in sand injection has been widely invoked to explain the large-scale
injection complexes recently recognised in the Paleogene of the North Sea but had
previously never been proven.
Selected reading:
Duranti, D. and Mazzini, A., 2005. Large-scale hydrocarbon-driven sand injection in the
Paleogene of the North Sea. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 239(3-4): 327-335.
Jonk, R., Hurst, A., Duranti, D., Parnell, J., Mazzini, A. and Fallick, A.E., 2005. Origin
and timing of sand injection, petroleum migration, and diagenesis in Tertiary
reservoirs, south Viking Graben, North Sea. AAPG Bulletin, 89(3): 329-357.
Mazzini, A., Duranti, D., Jonk, R., Parnell, J., Cronin, B.T., Hurst, A. and Quine, M.,
2003. Palaeo-carbonate seep structures above an oil reservoir, Gryphon Field,
Tertiary, North Sea. Geo-Marine Letters, 23 (3-4): 323-339.
Mazzini, A., Jonk, R., Duranti, D., Parnell, J., Cronin, B.T. and Hurst, A., 2003. Fluid
escape from reservoirs: implications from cold seeps, fractures and injected sands.
Part I: the fluid flow system. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 78: 293-296.
Jonk, R., Mazzini, A., Duranti, D., Parnell, J., Cronin, B.T. and Hurst, A., 2003. Fluid
escape from reservoirs: implications from cold seeps, fractures and injected sands.
Part II: the fluids involved. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 78: 297-300.
Fluid inclusion studies
Fluid inclusions are micron-sized sealed cavities in minerals that have trapped relics of
formerly mobile fluids (liquid and vapour) during mineral growth or deformation.
Microthermometric analysis measure phase transitions observed during the heating and
freezing of these inclusions yielding to valuable information concerning the composition
of the fluids trapped within inclusions as well as indicating the ambient temperature at
which minerals precipitated.
We demonstrate that it is possible to obtain data from inclusions in chemosynthetic
carbonates that precipitated by the oxidation of organic carbon around methane-bearing
seepages. To our knowledge no microthermometry measurements have been preformed
before on authigenic carbonates from cold seeps. This is not surprising taking into
account the small size and low abundance of the inclusions as well as the translucent
nature of many of the cements due to the presence of solid impurities, for example, pyrite
and organics. In addition, the fragile nature of aragonite, which hosts many of the
inclusions in these samples, means that the inclusions are often stretched (they change in
volume) during heating and freezing runs. Especially interesting to astrobiologists are
these inclusions in low-temperature minerals that may have been precipitated in the
presence of microorganisms.
Raman spectroscopy can be used to fingerprint chemical species contained in two-phase
fluid inclusions. This technique was tested on some authigenic carbonates from the
Vøring Plateau revealing the presence of hydrocarbons not represented by simple
methane, but consisting of a complex mixture of longer chain hydrocarbons that were
heterogeneously trapped.
Selected reading:
Mazzini, A., Li, R. and Parnell, J., 2002. Spectroscopic methods for analysing organic
compounds in fluid inclusions during planetary exploration. Lunar and planetary
science, XXXIII: 1645.pdf.
Parnell, J., Mazzini, A. and Honghan, C., 2002. Fluid inclusion studies of chemosynthetic
carbonates: strategy for seeking life on Mars. Astrobiology, 2 (1): 43-57.
Marine geology expeditions
FIELDWORKS AND SCIENTIFIC CRUISES
2005: Fieldwork to South Africa, magmativc sill intrusions and hydrothermal vent complexes in
the Karoo basin
2005: TTR15 cruise (Black Sea: gas hydrates, mud volcanism and seepage sites) R/V Professor
Logachev.
2004: CD-166 cruise (Gulf of Cadiz sand lobes, Maroccan turbidite system on North West
African margin) R/V Charles Darwin.
2003: TTR13 cruise (Norwegian Sea, Andoya-Traenadjupet slides; southern Greenland sea
mounts; Labrador Sea canyon systems; Irish margin, carbonate mounds) R/V Professor
Logachev.
2002: TTR12 cruise (Alboran Sea: mud volcano and seepage province; Tirrenian Sea: Marsili and
Vavilov volcanoes), R/V Professor Logachev.
2002: Fieldwork to Turkey, turbidite systems of southern and eastern Turkey, University of
Aberdeen.
2001: TTR11 cruise, (Black Sea: mud volcanism and cold seeps; North Aegean Sea: North
Anatolian fault), R/V Professor Logachev.
2001: Fieldwork to NE Spain, Ebro Basin and Pyrenean Range, University of Aberdeen.
2000: TTR10 cruise (Mid-Atlantic Ridge: black smokers in the Lucky Strike area; Gulf of Cadiz:
sediment transport and mud volcanism; Irish Margin: turbidites and cold-water carbonate
reefs; Norwegian Sea: gas seepage on Vøring Plateau and Storegga Slide), R/V Professor
Logachev.
1999: TTR9 cruise (Faeroe Margin: gas escapes and current dominated features; Rockall: gas
escapes features), R/V Professor Logachev.
1998: TTR8 cruise (Portuguese Margin), R/V Professor Logachev.
1998: Fieldwork to SE France, Turbidite complex systems in Annot area, University of Aberdeen.
1997: TTR7a cruise (Northeastern Atlantic margin: cold water carbonate mounds and sediment
transport), R/V Professor Logachev.
1997: TTR7b/Anaxiprobe cruise (Anaximander mountain-Eastern Mediterranean: mud
volcanism), R/V Boris Petrov.
1996: TTR6 cruise/Anaxiprobe (Eastern Mediterranean and Black seas: neotectonics and fluid
flow through seafloor sediments), R/V Gelendzhik.
1996: Stratigraphic sequence of the Molare Formation (Piedmont Tertiary Basin) and structure of
the metamorphic basement.
1995: TTR5 cruise (Eastern Mediterranean ridge: United Nations rise, volcanism and fluid
venting), R/V Professor Logachev.
1995: NIOZ+Vrije Universiteit cruise (North Sea and Danish Margin: deep sea current features),
R/V Pelagia.
1993: Mapping and interpretation of the tectonic/sedimentary structures of the Tertiary Basin of
Piedmont and the basal metamorphic complex.
Co-author of:
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K., Akhmetzhanov, A.M., Kozlova, E. and Mazzini, A.
(Editors), 2004. Interdisciplinary studies of North Atlantic and Labrador Sea Margin
Architecture and Sedimentary Processes. Technical Series- Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission. , UNESCO, (English), 68, 92 pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K., Akhmetzhanov, A.M. and Akhmanov, G.G. (Editors),
2003. Interdisciplinary Geoscience Research on the North East Atlantic Margin,
Mediterranean Sea and Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Technical Series- Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission. , UNESCO, (English), 67, 112 pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K., Akhmetzhanov, A.M. and Akhmanov, G.G. (Editors),
2002. Geological Processes in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and North East
Atlantic. Technical Series- Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, 62, 123
pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K., Akhmetzhanov, A.M. and Akhmanov, G.G. (Editors),
2001. Multidisciplinary Study of Geological Processes on the North East Atlantic
Margin and Mid-Atlantic ridge. Technical Series- Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission, 60, 142 pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K., Akhmetzhanov, A.M. and Akhmanov, G.G. (Editors),
2000. Multidisciplinary Study of Geological Processes on the North East Atlantic and
Western Mediterranean Margins. Technical Series- Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission, 56, 102 pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K. and Akhmetzhanov, A.M. (Editors), 1999. Geological
Processes on the Northeast Atlantic Margin. Technical Series- Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission, 54, 141 pp.
Kenyon, N.H., Ivanov, M.K. and Akhmetzhanov, A.M. (Editors), 1998. Cold water
carbonate mounds and sediment transport on the Northeast Atlantic margin.
Technical Series- Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, 52, 179 pp.
Woodside, J., Ivanov, M.K. and Limonov, A.F. (Editors), 1997. Neotectonics and fluid
flow through seafloor sediments in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Technical series Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, 48, 226 pp.
M.K. Ivanov, A.F. Limonov and B. Cronin (Editors), Mud volcanism and fluid venting in
the eastern part of the Mediterranean Ridge. UNESCO Reports in Marine
Science, 68, pp. 20-31.
http://ioc.unesco.org/ttr/