Mud volcanism as a dangerous phenomenon for oil and gas facilities

Abstract

Abstract The research dwells on the danger of mud volcanism for human economic activity, namely, oil and gas production. We performed quantitative assessment of mud volcanoes activities, using Azerbaijan and Kerch-Taman region as examples. Average annual number of mud volcanoes eruptions is 3–4 for Azerbaijan and 1–2 for Kerch-Taman region. We estimate the catalogues of mud volcanic eruptions for those areas to be 52 % and 39 % complete, respectively. Mud volcanoes eruptions are quite frequent. In both regions, over 50 % of all recorded eruptions occur within ten years of the latest eruption. Analysis of mud volcanic eruptions catalogues shows that the volume of breccia ejected during an eruption is practically not related to how long the mud volcano was quiescent. Analysis of potential impact of seismicity on mud volcanic activity shows that the probability of mud volcanoes responding to an earthquake is 6 % and 10 % for Azerbaijan and Kerch-Taman region, respectively.