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During FY2010, the project continued in a no-cost extension.  When initially submitted, the project was a Ph.D. project for a student who left the university in 2006 for a job with industry.  Subsequently, it was decided to divide the project into smaller pieces to be analyzed for MS theses.  Three students have worked on the project, Idris Murad, Leslie Nemazi, and Danl Lewis, the latter two being supported by project funds.  Murad worked on the eastern part of the study area, in the Garden Banks and Keathley Canyon leaseblocks.  Nemazi worked on the southwest area, covering Alaminos Canoyn and Port Isabel leaseblocks.  And Danl Lewis recently began his MS research, working on the northwest portion, which covers East Breaks and Corpus Christi leaseblocks.

All of the students have examined the 2D multichannel seismic data set with goals of defining the top of the buried salt, mapping sediment isopachs, and looking for evidence of gas hydrate reflectors.  These are often called “BSR” (bottom-simulating-reflectors); although, in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) the reflectors do not mimic the seafloor.  BSR are classic indicators of gas hydrate occurrence and are rare in the GOM.  To date, only patchy, disconnected possible BSR have been found.  The students are also examining the seismic evidence for gas, the faulting styles, and looking for fluid escape features that may result in seafloor seeps.  The idea is to look at the geologic development of the region, the faulting, and how that has affected gas hydrate accumulation (or lack thereof).   Initially, it was hoped that faults could be mapped throughout the study area, but the wide spacing of the seismic lines (~3 km) has made this difficult in most areas. 

Murad defended his M.S. thesis during the fall of 2008 and departed for his home country of Turkey in January 2009.  Communications with him have been minimal since then (this is not unexpected as he was returning to do his required military service).  Leslie Nemazi finished her MS thesis in May 2010 and has gone on to work in industry.  The remaining funds are supporting student Danl Lewis, who will do a similar job to that of Nemazi and Murad.  When he is done, the interpretations will be written for publication.