Thomas Lorenson
Science and Products
Climate impacts to Arctic coasts
The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.
Preliminary global database of known and inferred gas hydrate locations
This data release provides a text description of the region, geographic coordinates, and the citation for the published reference for known and inferred gas hydrate locations. Where the existence of gas hydrate was inferred, the description of the criteria used to make the inference was also included.
A 100-km wide slump along the upper slope of the Canadian Arctic was likely preconditioned for failure by brackish pore water flushing
Exploration of the continental slope of the Canadian Beaufort Sea has revealed a remarkable coalescence of slide scars with headwalls between 130 and 1100 m water depth (mwd). With increased depth, the scars widen and merge into one gigantic regional slide scar that is more than 100 km wide below ~1100 mwd. To understand the...
Paull, C.K.; Dallimore, S.R.; Caress, D.W.; Gwiazda, R.; Lundsten, E.; Anderson, K.; Melling, H.; Jin, Y.K.; Duchesne, M.J.; Kang S-G.; Kim, S.; Riedel, M.; King, E.L.; Lorenson, Thomas Geochemistry of coastal permafrost and erosion-driven organic matter fluxes to the Beaufort Sea near Drew Point, Alaska
Accelerating erosion of the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast is increasing inputs of organic matter from land to the Arctic Ocean, and improved estimates of organic matter stocks in eroding coastal permafrost are needed to assess their mobilization rates under contemporary conditions. We collected three permafrost cores (4.5–7.5 m long) along a...
Bristol, Emily M.; Connolly, Craig T.; Lorenson, Thomas; Richmond, Bruce M.; Ilgen, Anastasia G.; Choens, Charles R.; Bull, Diana L.; Kanevskiy, Mikhail Z.; Iwahana, Go; Jones, Benjamin M.; McClelland, James M. Permafrost mapping with electrical resistivity tomography in two wetland systems north of the Tanana River, Interior Alaska
Surface-based 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys were used to characterize permafrost distribution at wetland sites on the alluvial plain north of the Tanana River, 20 km southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska, in June and September 2014. The sites were part of an ecologically-sensitive research area characterizing biogeochemical response...
Conaway, Christopher H.; Johnson, Cordell; Lorenson, Thomas; Turetsky, Merritt R.; Euskirchen, Eugénie S.; Waldrop, Mark; Swarzenski, Peter W. Focused fluid flow and methane venting along the Queen Charlotte fault, offshore Alaska (USA) and British Columbia (Canada)
Fluid seepage along obliquely deforming plate boundaries can be an important indicator of crustal permeability and influence on fault-zone mechanics and hydrocarbon migration. The ~850-km-long Queen Charlotte fault (QCF) is the dominant structure along the right-lateral transform boundary that separates the Pacific and North American tectonic...
Prouty, Nancy G.; Brothers, Daniel; Kluesner, Jared; Barrie, J. Vaughn; Andrews, Brian D.; Lauer, Rachel; Greene, Gary; Conrad, James E.; Lorenson, Thomas; Law, Michael D.; Sahy, Diana; Conway, Kim; McGann, Mary; Dartnell, Peter Sediment and organic carbon transport and deposition driven by internal tides along Monterey Canyon, offshore California
Submarine canyons provide globally important conduits for sediment and organic carbon transport into the deep-sea. Using a novel dataset from Monterey Canyon, offshore central California, that includes an extensive array of water column sampling devices, we address how fine-grained sediment and organic carbon are transported, mixed, fractionated,...
Maier, Katherine L.; Rosenberger, Kurt J.; Paull, Charles K.; Gwiazda, Roberto; Gales, Jenny; Lorenson, Thomas; Barry, James P.; Talling, Peter J.; McGann, Mary; Xu, Jingping; Lundsten, Eve M.; Anderson, Krystle; Litvin, Steven; Parsons, Daniel; Clare, Michael; Simmons, Stephen; Sumner, Esther J; Cartigny, Matthieu J.B. Geochemically distinct oil families in the onshore and offshore Santa Maria basins, California
The purpose of this work is to identify genetic affinities among 48 crude oil samples from the onshore and offshore Santa Maria basins. A total of 21 source-related biomarker and stable carbon isotope ratios among the samples were assessed to assure that they were unaffected by secondary processes. Chemometric analysis of these data identifies six...
Peters, Kenneth E.; Lillis, Paul G.; Lorenson, Thomas; Zumberge, J. E. National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 offshore India; gas hydrate systems as revealed by hydrocarbon gas geochemistry
The National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 01 (NGHP-01) targeted gas hydrate accumulations offshore of the Indian Peninsula and along the Andaman convergent margin. The primary objectives of coring were to understand the geologic and geochemical controls on the accumulation of methane hydrate and their linkages to underlying petroleum systems....
Lorenson, Thomas; Collett, Timothy S. A new model for turbidity current behavior based on integration of flow monitoring and precision coring in a submarine canyon
Submarine turbidity currents create some of the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, yet there are few direct measurements of these flows. Instead, most of our understanding of turbidity currents results from analyzing their deposits in the sedimentary record. However, the lack of direct flow measurements means that there is considerable...
Symons, William O.; Sumner, Esther J.; Paull, Charles K.; Cartigny, Matthieu J.B.; Xu, Jingping; Maier, Katherine L.; Lorenson, Thomas; Talling, Peter J. Seasonal electrical resistivity surveys of a coastal bluff, Barter Island, North Slope Alaska
Select coastal regions of the North Slope of Alaska are experiencing high erosion rates that can be attributed in part to recent warming trends and associated increased storm intensity and frequency. The upper sediment column of the coastal North Slope of Alaska can be described as continuous permafrost underlying a thin (typically less than 1–2 m...
Swarzenski, Peter W.; Johnson, Cordell; Lorenson, Thomas; Conaway, Christopher H.; Gibbs, Ann E.; Erikson, Li H.; Richmond, Bruce M.; Waldrop, Mark P. Gas hydrate characterization and grain-scale imaging of recovered cores from the Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Using cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (CSEM), powder X-ray diffraction, and gas chromatography methods, we investigated the physical states, grain characteristics, gas composition, and methane isotopic composition of two gas-hydrate-bearing sections of core recovered from the BPXA–DOE–USGS Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well...
Stern, Laura A.; Lorenson, Thomas; Pinkston, John C. The characteristics of gas hydrates recovered from the Mount Elbert Gas Hydrate Stratigraphic Test Well, Alaska North Slope
Systematic analyses have been carried out on two gas hydrate-bearing sediment core samples, HYPV4, which was preserved by CH4 gas pressurization, and HYLN7, which was preserved in liquid-nitrogen, recovered from the BPXA-DOE-USGS Mount Elbert Stratigraphic Test Well. Gas hydrate in the studied core samples was found by observation to have...
Lu, H.; Lorenson, Thomas; Moudrakovski, I.L.; Ripmeester, J.A.; Collett, Timothy S.; Hunter, R.B.; Ratcliffe, C.I. Attention turns to naturally occurring methane seepage
Methane is the most abundant organic compound in the Earth's atmosphere. As a powerful greenhouse gas, it has implications for global climate change. Sources of methane to the atmosphere are varied. Depending on the source, methane can contain either modern or ancient carbon. Methane exiting from swamps and wetlands contains modern carbon, whereas...
Kvenvolden, Keith A.; Lorenson, Thomas; Reeburgh, W.S.