White and orange mats are ubiquitous on surface sediments associated with gas hydrates and cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal of this study was to determine the predominant pathways for carbon cycling within an orange mat in Green Canyon (GC) block GC 234 in the Gulf of Mexico. Our approach incorporated laser-scanning confocal microscopy, lipid biomarkers, stable carbon isotopes, and 16...

A geophysical transect across the central Gulf of Mexico coastal plain shows that the early Paleozoic continental margin of southern Laurentia is preserved in a nearly pristine state beneath younger strata that were emplaced during the late Paleozoic Ouachita orogeny and formation of the modern Gulf of Mexico coastal plain. The thickness of the crystalline crust decreases abruptly across the ma...

The advent of molecular detection assays has provided a set of very sensitive tools for the detection of pathogens in marine organisms, but it has also raised problems of how to interpret positive signals that are not accompanied by visual confirmation. PCR-positive results have recently been reported for Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX), a pathogen of the oyster Crassostrea virginica in 31 of 40 o...

The Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the largest oil spill in the US history and the death of 11 men, has been thoroughly investigated to avoid a similar catastrophe in the future. In this paper we make a review of the accident including a brief overview of the causes, discuss the relevance of the accident for the Norwegian Petroleum Industry and describe how the Nor...

Multi-component Seismic Data Gas producers across the Gulf of Mexico are targeting deeper and deeper drilling objectives. Most operators in the Gulf consider 30,000ft to be the deepest target depth that will be drilled for the next few years. To image geology at those depths, seismic reflection data must be acquired with offsets of at least 30,000ft. TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS IN NATURAL GAS EXPLO...

It is proposed to use a single base platform in the Persian Gulf considering its low depth and more appropriate environmental conditions in comparison to North Sea and Mexico Gulf where this kind of platform is very popular. The pile of platform is responsible for transmission of environmental loads resulted from waves, currents, wind and dead loads to foundation of platform. Using SACS 5.3 sof...

Recent investigations suggest that marine biodiversity may be much higher than earlier estimates, and an important hidden source of diversity in marine systems is the phenomenon of cryptic species complexes. Such complexes are informative models for research into the evolutionary processes that govern species compositions of marine fauna. The snapping shrimp genera Alpheus and Synalpheus are kn...

Cayo Arcas is a small, offshore reef complex on the southwest corner of Campeche Bank, Gulf of Mexico. The only published information (from 2000) on the fishes of that reef refers to 37 species. Here additional information is added, some from unpublished observations during the 1980s, as well as author observations made during 2013 and 2016. These bring the checklist of that reef's fishes up to...