Acoustic Monitoring of Gas Emission Processes in the Arctic Shelf Seas

The emission of natural gas from the seafloor to the surface in shelf areas of the Arctic seas is of increasing interest among researchers. Recently, various types of acoustic instruments have been used to record streams of natural gas flowing out from the seafloor. Hydroacoustic and seismoacoustic equipment in various combinations was installed as an acoustic complex and has been successfully used on scientific cruises of RAS vessels in 2011–2021 in Russian Arctic shelf seas. This article addresses the issues of using the equipment for detecting areas of increased gas saturation and describes some of the results obtained.