An Integrated Approach to Recognizing Fossil Cold Seeps: Methodology and Application

Methane has become an attractive answer for the anomalous and has recently been used to explain numerous carbonates, especially mud mounds, in the rock record. The criteria for recognizing methane seeping from the sea floor (cold seeps) have not been standardized, resulting in a variety of arguments asserting the influence of methane. This study is an attempt to classify six criteria which would allow for the positive identification of a fossil cold seep; independent of age, geologic setting, depositional depth, or lithology