Legacy scientific ocean drilling data suggest that subsurface heat and salts cause exceptionally limited methane hydrate stability in the Mediterranean Basin

<p>The knowledge of the global reservoir of submarine gas hydrates is of great relevance for understanding global climate dynamics, submarine geohazards, and unconventional hydrocarbon energy resources. Methane hydrate formation and preservation is favored by high pressure and low geothermal gradient and this leads the reservoir to be hosted mostly in cold passive continental margins. Several studies describe the Mediterranean basin's potential to host a Methane hydrate reservoir. However, in spite of the ample evidence of subsurface hydrocarbons, especially biogenic methane, widespread evidence of gas hydrate either from samples or seismic data is missing.&#160; We modeled the theoretical Mediterranean distribution of methane hydrate stability field below the seafloor and in the water column using available geological information provided by 44 Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) boreholes, measured geothermal gradients, and thermohaline characteristics of the water masses from CMEMS (Copernicus Marine services). We find that the pervasive presence of high-salinity waters in sediments, coupled with the uniquely warm and salty water column, limits the thickness of the theoretical methane hydrate stability zone in the subsurface and deepens its top surface. Because of the homogeneous characteristics of water masses, the top surface in the Mediterranean sea lays uniformly from 1163 to 1391 mbsl, much deeper than the oceanic basins where it lays around 300 - 500 mbsl. The theoretical distribution of methane hydrates coincides well with the distribution of shallow, low-permeability Messinian salt deposits, further limiting the formation of pervasive gas hydrate fronts and controlling their distribution due to the prevention of upward hydrocarbon gas migration.&#160;We conclude that the Mediterranean Basin, hosting the youngest salt giant on Earth, is not prone to the widespread formation and preservation of gas hydrates in the subsurface and that the gas hydrate potential of salt-bearing rifted continental margins may be considerably decreased by the presence of subsurface brines. This study was entirely conducted using data (stratigraphy, pore water salinity, and where available downhole temperature measurements) obtained with scientific ocean drilling, thus demonstrating&#160;the&#160;importance of the legacy data as a source of quality information even decades after their acquisition.</p>