a reaction transport mechanical approach to modeling the interrelationships among gas generation overpressuring and fracturing implications for the upper cretaceous natural gas reservoirs of the piceance basin colorado predicting reservoir characteristics in tight gas sandstone reservoirs such as those of the upper cretaceous units of the piceance basin is difficult due to the interactions of multiple processes acting on sediments during basin development to better understand the dynamics of these systems a forward numerical model which accounts for compaction fracturing hydrocarbon generation and multiphase flow basinrtm is used in a one dimensional simulation of the u s department of energy s multiwell experiment mwx site in the piceance basin of particular interest is the effect of gas generation on the dynamics of the system

brittle ductile transition shear failure and leakage in shales and mudrocks abstract this paper presents an experimental study on brittle ductile transition shear behaviour the formation of shear fractures in shales and mudrocks and the hydraulic properties of shales and mudrocks with shear induced fractures the experimental study is based on triaxial tests on different mudrocks and shales from north sea reservoirs and adjacent areas sheared at different effective confining stresses it is shown that during burial mudrocks behave as normally consolidated materials and exhibit ductile response to increased load however several processes like uplift chemical diagenesis and overpressure build up turn mudrocks into overconsolidated materials which exhibit brittle behaviour during loading triaxial tests with different loading conditions have been performed to establish the brittle to ductile transition of various mudrocks based on the results of the tests it is shown that the brittle to ductile transition can be related to the overconsolidation ratio a relationship between normalized undrained shear strength and overconsolidation ratio is established in combination with this relationship a correlation between compressional wave velocity and apparent pre consolidation stress which accounts for both mechanical and chemical diagenesis may be used as a tool to evaluate possible leakage of hydrocarbon seals

heat flow across the toe of accretionary prisms the role of fluid flux compaction driven fluid flow in accretionary prisms is ineffective in changing heat flow across the lower slope even when the rate of fluid flow is greatly enhanced by hydrofracturing as results of numerical analysis show for most faults which are long relative to their thickness conductive heat loss to the wall rock is much more effective in heat transport than advective transport along the faults

evidence of fluid flow in microfractures in geopressured shales petrographic and microprobe analyses of geopressured shales from the oligocene frio formation brazoria county texas provide direct evidence of hydraulic fracturing and significant fluid flow in the shales the optical continuity of the fracture margins and their higher al si ratios indicate that the fracture margins have undergone more complete alteration of smectite to illite than the interiors of the fracture blocks crosscutting relationships between calcium sulfate and the organic material that fills the fractures indicate that calcium sulfate was emplaced before the organic material and thus was precipitated in the subsurface the calculated fracture permeabilities of the shales on the order of 10 13 m2 are similar in magnitude to that of he frio sandstone reservoirs which suggests that these fractured shales could support flow comparable to that in the sandstones fracture fill deposits or collapse could in turn reduce this flow in addition the more extensive alteration of the fracture margins suggests that fluid in these shales flowed preferentially through the microfractures rather than through the matrix

observations of ice sheet motion in greenland using satellite radar interferometry we present interferometric observations of ice sheet motion in western greenland based on pairs of ers 1 synthetic aperture radar sar images these observations provide the first detailed regional view of ice motion associated with dynamically supported topography near the margin of an ice sheet the interferograms of this area are much more complicated than other interferograms of ice sheets presented to date we devote the largest part of this paper to explaining the source of the complexity in these interferograms a synthetic interferogram based on a simple model helps to illustrate the effects of different components of the ice velocity field in interferometric data and suggests a method for estimating the large scale ice velocity field from such data

potassium distribution and metasomatism in pelites and schists how and when relation to postdepositional events a large global database for over 9000 archean to holocene pelites in numerous basins has been developed to evaluate diagenetically unaltered and altered compositions the mineralogy and geochemistry of quaternary muds and ancient mudstones provide first order controls on diagenetic potassium metasomatism in pelites clay mineralogy of quaternary muds is dominated by smectite and kaolinite with minor detrital mica and illite thus k2o is 4 k al is 0 25 and k rb is 220 in most quaternary muds with diagenetic alteration of clays to illite smectite and illite k2o content increases to 4 8 and k al rises to 0 2 0 5 or more in extreme potassium metasomatism authigenic k feldspar develops sources of potassium are internal to shale sandstone units wherein detrital k feldspar is dissolved during diagenesis providing k for clay illitization in closed system isochemical alteration as in some gulf coast and north sea basin cases potassium in amounts greater than that available from closed system alteration is provided from extraformational circulating brines in open system diagenesis k rb with diagenesis varies according to whether the metasomatizing fluid was relatively poor in rb seawater derived brines or richer in rb as in many hydrothermal waters diagenetic fluids may originate from seawater or meteoric water enriched in cations by water rock interactions along their subsurface migration paths and or by dissolution of evaporites potassium metasomatizing fluids penetrate low permeability pelites through faults fractures and microfractures and by diffusion in the mineral matrix typically k metasomatism possibly with pb zn cu ba and f mineralization occurs long after sediment deposition and burial at temperatures of 50 to 150 c related to tectonic activity and fluid movement different modes of metasomatism are recognized and correlated with geological setting in the passive margin gulf coast tertiary basin open system k metasomatism where present is limited to areas adjacent to steeply dipping growth faults which act as conduits for episodic pulses of altering fluids migrated upward from deeper basin sources in contrast widespread pervasive open system k metasomatism produced by continuous long term gravity advective and diffusive flow of brine from the late paleozoic appalachian ouachita wichita mountains highland to altered earlier paleozoic shales plus sandstones bentonites and carbonates in the illinois and anadarko ardmore foreland basins this mode of k alteration following major mountain building events is characteristic of many precambrian and paleozoic collision orogens and associated foreland basins another mode is in rift basins with no external drainage in which indigenous waters are evaporated to brines these brines cause albitization of k feldspar to yield potassium for illitization of detrital clays

kinetics of pressure solution at halite silica interfaces and intergranular clay films pressure solution is widely regarded as a potentially important deformation mechanism along crustal faults and during aliagenesis yet the mechanisms and kinetics of this process remain highly controversial to better understand the fundamental factors controwing the rates of pressure solution at the grain to grain scale we conducted experiments in which convex halite lenses were pressed against fiats of fused silica in brine fluid pressures were maintained at 0 1 mpa temperatures and mean contact normal stresses ranged from 8 3 o to 90 2oc and 0 5 to 13 5 mpa respectively the geometry and growth rate of the contact spot between the two lenses and the rate at which the lenses approached one another convergence were monitored using reflected light interferometry and transmitted light photomicrography convergence occurred when halite and silica lenses were pressed together in brine halite silica experiments no undercutting was observed and dry control experiments indicated negligible dislocation creep convergence rates in experiments at 50 2oc ranged from 0 01 to 0 05 m d depending on mean normal stress and contact spot radius the data are consistent with intergranular pressure solution ips rate limited by diffusion through an intergranular film with a very high diffusion coefficient 10 5 10 7 cm2 s the data further suggest that the diffusion coefficient and or thickness of this film increases with decreasing normal stresses at least for normal stresses less than about 4 mpa as no island channel boundary structures were observed we propose that this film consists of a continuous layer of strongly adsorbed i e structured water that is maintained between the halite and silica lenses during deformation convergence rates in similar experiments conducted at a constant load of 0 11 n but at 8 3 o 50 2 o and 90 2oc were approximately constant at a given normal stress and contact spot size the cause of this temperature insensitivity is unknown but might result from changes in interphase boundary structure or thickness with increasing temperature that are sufficient to offset the expected thermal activation an experiment was also conducted in which a halite lens was pressed against a fused silica fiat coated with an 0 8 m thick film of na montmorillonite in brine this clay film produced an approximately fivefold increase in convergence rates over those observed in a halite silica experiment conducted without clay at the same load and temperature the strong sensitivity of ips rates both to contact spot radius and to the presence of second phases along grain boundaries suggests that fine grained clay rich fault gouges and multiphase granular aggregates should be particularly susceptible to pressure solution creep in the middle to upper crust

satellite radar interferometry for monitoring ice sheet motion application to an antarctic ice stream satellite radar interferometry sri provides a sensitive means of monitoring the flow velocities and grounding line positions of ice streams which are indicators of response of the ice sheets to climatic change or internal instability the detection limit is about 1 5 millimeters for vertical motions and about 4 millimeters for horizontal motions in the radar beam direction the grounding line detected by tidal motions where the ice goes afloat can be mapped at a resolution of 0 5 kilometer the sri velocities and grounding line of the rutford ice stream antarctica agree fairly well with earlier ground based data the combined use of sri and other satellite methods is expected to provide data that will enhance the understanding of ice stream mechanics and help make possible the prediction of ice sheet behavior

three dimensional seismic characterization of a venting site reveals compelling indications of natural hydraulic fracturing based on a three dimensional high resolution seismic survey off vancouver island canada we show that natural hydraulic fracturing is an efficient process to create permeable pathways for focused fluid upflow at submarine venting sites the pockmark structure examined in this study is located on top of an accreted ridge where the low permeability base of the gas hydrate stability field is also elevated and fluid overpressure will be induced tectonically elongated hydraulic fractures reveal decreased reflection amplitudes and are oriented along the maximum principal stress direction perpendicular to nearby fault planes a surface expression is created by fluid and material expulsion forming an irregular noncircular rim along the axis of the upflow zone our findings confirm a relationship between lateral variations in seismic reflectivity and sediment distribution regional tectonics episodic fluid flow and the formation and dissociation of gas hydrate they explain the presence of gas hydrate at the top of the upflow zone which requires transport of large volumes of gas through the gas hydrate stability field since hydraulic fracturing is not restricted to compressional regimes it is a likely explanation for the nature shape and orientation of upflow zones as well as for seismic blanking widely observed at both active and passive continental margins

potential salinity driven free convection in a shale rich sedimentary basin example from the gulf of mexico basin in south texas we investigate the plausibility of salinity driven free thermohaline convection in sedimentary rocks of the south texas part of the gulf of mexico basin using salinity data rayleigh number calculations and numerical models previous studies speculated that free convection could account for high fluxes evidently required for diagenesis in the basin but low permeability shales are calculated to be a barrier to free convection in the study area salinity inversions occur either above or within the transition zone from hydropressures to overpressures the positioning of brines over less saline fluids provides a significant buoyancy force rayleigh number calculations and numerical simulations suggest that homogeneous shaly systems are unstable near the high end of the expected ranges of shale permeability 10 15 10 16 m2 numerical simulations show that the influx of brine into the permeable layers and permeability heterogeneity in the shales are both conducive to free convection simulations indicate that salinity driven free convection can occur at lower permeabilities 10 16 10 18 m2 that may approximate the permeabilities of shales in the zone of extreme overpressures over geologic time simple rayleigh numbers are inadequate to predict the occurrence of free convection in heterogeneous systems salinity driven free convection at depths in some large sedimentary basins such as the gulf of mexico may be more common than expected

subsurface fractures and their relationship to stress history in east texas basin sandstone abstract subsurface fractures were sampled with more than 400 m of core from the lower cretaceous travis peak formation a tabular sandstone and shale unit approximately 600 m thick that was deposited in the gradually subsiding gulf coast basin depth to the top of the formation in east texas now ranges between 1800 and 2900 m fractures in sandstone exhibit features that are due to intermittent fracturing and sealing crack seal which suggest that the fractures are the result of episodes of fluid pressure in excess of hydrostatic correlation of the vein mineral precipitation sequence with the diagenetic history and the results of previous 18 o studies of quartz cement indicates that fractures propagated at depths of between 900 and 1500 m during the migration of quartz precipitating fluids fracture permeability provides a mechanism for the passage of large fluid volumes recorded by the precipitation of extensive quartz cement in the formation fractures stopped propagating before maximum burial depth was achieved during approximately 1500 m of subsequent burial fractures either remained partly open or were sealed by postkinematic ankerite and clay minerals

the displacement field of the landers earthquake mapped by radar interferometry geodetic data obtained by ground or space based techniques can be used to infer the distribution of slip on a fault that has ruptured in an earthquake although most geodetic techniques require a surveyed network to be in place before the earthquake1 3 satellite images when collected at regular intervals can capture co seismic displacements without advance knowledge of the earthquake s location synthetic aperture radar sar interferometry first introduced4 in 1974 for topographic mapping5 8 can also be used to detect changes in the ground surface by removing the signal from the topography9 10 here we use sar interferometry to capture the movements produced by the 1992 earthquake in landers california11 we construct an interferogram by combining topographic information with sar images obtained by the ers 1 satellite before and after the earthquake the observed changes in range from the ground surface to the satellite agree well with the slip measured in the field with the displacements measured by surveying and with the results of an elastic dislocation model as a geodetic tool the sar interferogram provides a denser spatial sampling 100 m per pixel than surveying methods1 3 and a better precision 3 cm than previous space imaging techniques12 13

permeability controls on aquathermal pressuring aquathermal pressuring refers to fluid pressures in excess of the hydrostatic which have been created by fluid thermal expansion against a less expansive sediment matrix two commonly stated objections to this mechanism are 1 hydraulic gradients and the finite but very low permeabilities now existing in the gulf of mexico are sufficient to dissipate aquathermal pressures and 2 the increasing temperatures decrease fluid viscosity at a rate so that hydraulic conductivity increases fast enough to dissipate these pressures evaluation of the momentum transport equations in the eulerian frame of reference indicates the first objection is not applicable because it treats the problem as steady flow and not transient flow furthermore existing data indicate that under no mal diagenetic conditions the decrease in intrinsic permeability caused by consolidation is greater than the viscosity effect therefore the two commonly stated objections to aquathermal pressuring do not by themselves prove the mechanism is ineffective in settings such as the gulf of mexico permeability increases by fracturing and faulting may however be sufficient to bleed off aquathermally produced excess pressures the measured very low permeabilities of gulf coast fine grained sediments indicate that aquathermal pressuring is a potentially important mechanism if the fine grained sediments do control the hydraulic response

structural features and formation conditions of mud diapirs in the andaman sea basin data from offshore oil and gas explorations have revealed that mud diapirs occur widely not only at continental margins but also in foreland basins and may have played an important role in the entrapment of oil and gas although the structural features and formation mechanism of salt diapirs have been extensively investigated mud diapirs are still not fully understood largely due to the difficulty of identifying them from seismic data in this paper the structural features and main controlling factors of mud diapirs in the andaman sea basin are investigated based on seismic profiles combined with drilling data and regional tectonic settings the results show that there are five types of mud diapir in the andaman sea basin turtleback mud diapir mud dome piercing mud diapir mud volcano and gas chimney like mud diapir turtleback mud diapirs mainly occur in the southern segment of the accretionary wedge of the andaman sea basin which is far from the bengal fan and characterized by low deposition rate and strong compression tectonic setting piercing mud diapirs exist mainly in the central segment of the accretionary wedge which is close to provenances of sediments and characterized by rapid sedimentation rates large mudstone thickness and transpressional tectonic setting mud domes and mud volcanoes mainly occur in the northern segment of the accretionary wedge which is characterized by rapid sedimentation rates large mudstone thickness and sedimentary wedge growth tectonic setting the gas chimney like mud diapirs only occur in the northern segment of the back arc depression close to the sagaing strike slip fault belt which is characterized by high deposition rate large mudstone thickness and high geothermal gradient these features suggest that thick mudstone deposit rapid sedimentation rates large geothermal gradient strong tectonic stress and gravitational spreading and sliding may have prompted the formation of mud diapirs in the andaman sea basin

diverse fracture properties and their impact on performance in conventional and tight gas reservoirs saudi arabia the unayzah south haradh case study the upper permian carboniferous unayzah formation in south haradh saudi arabia includes two major mechanical and petrophysical layers that are separated by shale rich zones open tectonic fracture clusters are rare and not essential for fluid flow in the unayzah a zone which has high porosity and permeability however such fracture clusters are essential to and impact the production performance in the unayzah b c tight gas reservoir the occurrence of the tectonic fractures in the unayzah formation is linked to the rock mechanical properties which vary with porosity shale volume cement type and texture the b c unit is more fractured than the a unit but its layers vary in the degree of fracturing the variation in fracture development within the b c unit results in differences in fracture enhanced permeability based on production profiles where flow is restricted to preferentially fractured mechanical layers that lack effective vertical fluid communication with other layers we identify two tectonic fracture systems an older subordinate fully mineralized system and a younger primary mostly open system early extensional fractures including joints and faults developed parallel to the basement faults during the opening of the neotethys these are fully mineralized and have little or no function as fluid conduits the younger system includes open fracture clusters that are predominantly parallel or nearly parallel to the regional east northeast west southwest maximum horizontal stress of the zagros that has been active since the late cretaceous and is independent of local structures therefore these fractures are controlled by remote stresses instead of the basement rooted forced folds and faults in this article we demonstrate that in the unayzah b c natural fractures are essential to permeability and in some areas to porosity and thence to reservoir performance the results of this study are being implemented in well placement and completion design to optimize the intersection of open fracture clusters with positive preliminary results

measurement of ice sheet topography using satellite radar interferometry detailed digital elevation models dems do not exist for much of the greenland and antarctic ice sheets radar altimetry is at present the primary in many cases the only source of topographic data over the ice sheets but the horizontal resolution of such data is coarse satellite radar interferometry uses the phase difference between pairs of synthetic aperture radar sar images to measure both ice sheet topography and surface displacement we have applied this technique using ers 1 sar data to make detailed i e 80 m horizontal resolution maps of surface topography in a 100 km by 300 km strip in west greenland extending northward from just above jakobshavns isbrae comparison with a 76 km long line of airborne laser altimeter data shows that we have achieved a relative accuracy of 2 5m along the profile these observations provide a detailed view of dynamically supported topography near the margin of an ice sheet in the final section we compare our estimate of topography with phase contours due to motion and confirm our earlier analysis concerning vertical ice sheet motion and complexity in ers 1 sar interferograms

ice sheet motion and topography from radar interferometry both topography and motion information are present in repeat pass ers 1 interferograms over ice sheets the authors demonstrate that the topography is separable from the surface displacement field when a sequence of radar images are available if the velocity field is constant over the time span of observation the topography can be derived from differential interferograms formed from sequential observations with this measurement a pure displacement field can then be obtained by removal of the topographic contribution to the interferometric phase at each pixel further they discuss how the vertical and horizontal components of displacement affect the interferometrically derived motion field they illustrate their approach with four successive 3 day repeat ers 1 images of a flow feature in northeastern greenland

hydrofracturing and episodic fluid flow in shale rich basins a numerical study low permeability sedimentary rocks commonly are fractured direct examination of exposed rock faces and drill cores shows evidence of hydrofracturing the mechanism for hydrofracturing its effects on fluid migration and its dependence on sediment permeability sedimentation rate and sedimentary sequences have not been explored in this study we carry out systematic numerical experiments to study the compaction induced hydrofracturing we show that the compaction induced hydrofracturing commonly may occur in shale rich basins and in sand shale sequences the frequency of such hydrofracturing depends on sediment permeability sedimentation rate and sedimentary sequence an important result is that compaction induced hydrofracturing may occur at relatively shallow depths in shale rich basins but it may mobilize enhanced fluid flow throughout the sedimentary basin over 60 of the total compaction induced fluid flow in the basin may be expelled during hydrofracturing we test the model against field data from the yinggehai basin of the south china margin where abundant hydrofractures in the uppermost quaternary marine mud have been recently detected by seismic imaging we suggest that the compaction induced hydrofracturing may mobilize fluid flow at great depths and affect hydrocarbon migration in shale rich basins

hierarchies of overpressure retardation of organic matter maturation case studies from petroleum basins in china the effects of overpressure on different aspects of organic matter maturation have been examined in three basins using multiple parameters overpressure in the yinggehai basin has retarded kerogen maturation hydrocarbon generation and thermal cracking of long chain normal hydrocarbons as well as evolution of isoprenoid hydrocarbons overpressure in the dongpu depression bohai bay basin seems to have retarded the maturation of bulk kerogens reflected by rock eval tmax the thermal cracking of long chain normal hydrocarbons and the evolution of isoprenoid hydrocarbons but seems to have had no detectable effects on vitrinite reflectance overpressure in the qiongdongnan basin has had no detectable retardation effects on all aspects of organic matter maturation the observed phenomena suggest differential retardation of organic matter maturation that is different organic matter maturation reactions and different maturity parameters have been retarded by overpressure to different degrees in the same overpressured system and four hierarchies of overpressure retardation hierarchy i retardation is defined as the state where the overpressure has retarded all aspects of organic matter maturation and is proposed to have been caused by the combination of high formation pressure and excess pressure a high water organic matter ratio and strong retention of reaction products in an early developed strong persistent overpressured system hierarchy ii retardation refers to the case in which all aspects of organic matter maturation except the maturation of hydrogen poor kerogens especially vitrinite have been retarded and seem to have been caused by early developed moderate to strong persistent overpressure hierarchy iii retardation refers to the situation where overpressure has retarded only the thermal cracking of liquid hydrocarbons but has had no detectable effect on the maturation of both hydrogen rich and hydrogen poor kerogens and is proposed to have been caused by moderate to strong persistent overpressures that began to develop around peak oil generation hierarchy iv retardation is defined as the situation where overpressure has had no detectable retardation on all aspects of organic matter maturation and may have been caused by cases wherein the overpressure developed too late the intensity of the overpressure was too low the duration of the overpressure was too short or overpressured fluids had been expelled frequently resulting from both the diversities of organic matter maturation reactions and the complexities of overpressure generation and development the hierarchies of overpressure retardation in different basins may be quite different and it is necessary to use multiple parameters to understand the evolution of the petroleum systems in overpressured basins

tidal motion ice velocity and melt rate of petermann gletscher greenland measured from radar interferometry over a floating glacier ice tongue or an ice shelf the glacier motion measured by a single repeat pass radar interferogram is difficult to analyze because the long term steady motion of the ice is intermixed with its cyclic downward motion induced by tidal forcing multiple interferograms and a quadruple difference technique are necessary to separate the tidal signal from the long term steady motion of the ice an example of application of this technique is given here using ers 1 radar images of petermann gletscher a major outlet glacier of northern greenland tidal displacements are measured with 5 mm statistical noise the long term ice velocity is measured with a precision of 1 m a 1 the inferred tidal displacements agree well with model predictions from a fixed elastic beam with an elastic damping factor of 0 47 0 01 km 1 the hinge line is mapped with a precision of 20 80 m combining the interferometric ice velocities with ice thickness data the glacier ice discharge is calculated at and below the hinge line at the hinge line the ice flux is 12 1 1 km3 a 1 at the ice front calf ice production is only 0 59 km3 a 1 meaning that 95 of the ice that crosses the grounding line melts before it reaches the calving front assuming steady state conditions the melt rate of the glacier tongue averages 12 1 m a 1 with peak values exceeding 20 m a 1 near the hinge line this high melt rate cannot be accommodated by surface ablation alone only about 2 3 m a 1 and is attributed to pronounced basal melting of the ice tongue basal melting often assumed to be negligible in greenland is the dominant process of mass release from the floating section of petermann gletscher

estimating tectonic history through basin simulation enhanced seismic inversion geoinfomatics for sedimentary basins summary a data assimilation approach is demonstrated whereby seismic inversion is both automated and enhanced using a comprehensive numerical sedimentary basin simulator to study the physics and chemistry of sedimentary basin processes in response to geothermal gradient in much greater detail than previously attempted the approach not only reduces costs by integrating the basin analysis and seismic inversion activities to understand the sedimentary basin evolution with respect to geodynamic parameters but the technique also has the potential for serving as a geoinfomatics platform for understanding various physical and chemical processes operating at different scales within a sedimentary basin tectonic history has a first order effect on the physical and chemical processes that govern the evolution of sedimentary basins we demonstrate how such tectonic parameters may be estimated by minimizing the difference between observed seismic reflection data and synthetic ones constructed from the output of a reaction transport mechanical rtm basin model we demonstrate the method by reconstructing the geothermal gradient as thermal history strongly affects the rate of rtm processes operating in a sedimentary basin variations in geothermal gradient history alter the present day fluid pressure effective stress porosity fracture statistics and hydrocarbon distribution all these properties in turn affect the mechanical wave velocity and sediment density profiles for a sedimentary basin the present day state of the sedimentary basin is imaged by reflection seismology data to a high degree of resolution but it does not give any indication of the processes that contributed to the evolution of the basin or causes for heterogeneities within the basin that are being imaged using texture and fluid properties predicted by our basin rtm simulator we generate synthetic seismograms linear correlation using power spectra as an error measure and an efficient quadratic optimization technique are found to be most effective in determining the optimal value of the tectonic parameters preliminary 1 d studies indicate that one can determine the geothermal gradient even in the presence of observation and numerical uncertainties the algorithm succeeds even when the synthetic data has detailed information only in a limited depth interval and has a different dominant frequency in the synthetic and observed seismograms the methodology presented here even works when the basin input data contains only 75 per cent of the stratigraphic layering information compared with the actual basin in a limited depth interval

episodic fluid expulsion from geopressured sediments numerical simulation of fluid explusion from geopressured sediments using a one dimensional finite difference model shows that large volumes of fluid can be transported through a fractured seal during short lived 100 year expulsion events in this model abnormal fluid pressures are maintained by an impermeable seal when the fluid pressure exceeds 85 of the lithostatic pressure a vertical fracture opens in the seal providing a permeable pathway from the geopressured sediments into the overlying section fluid pressure in the seal decreases as fluid flows through the fracture closing the fracture as sediments in the seal compact once the fracture closes the seal remains impermeable until fluid flowing from deeper in the section increases fluid pressure to the fracture criteria a process that takes 10 000 500 000 years fractures emplaced in relatively incompressible seals such as compacted and or cemented sediments remain open for 20 50 years fluid fluxes through the seal integrated over the life of these events are 1 5 107 kg m2 and temperatures in the overlying sediments are increased by 5 20 c these temperature anomalies decay to less than half their original value in 300 years suggesting that the thermal anomalies observed in wells that are attributed to fluid expulsion formed in response to a very recent or currently active event

rate laws for water assisted compaction and stress induced water rock interaction in sandstones mineral water interactions under conditions of nonhydrostatic stress play a role in subjects as diverse as ductile creep in fault zones phase relations in metamorphic rocks mass redistribution and replacement reactions during diagenesis and loss of porosity in deep sedimentary basins as a step toward understanding the fundamental geochemical processes involved using naturally rounded st peter sand we have investigated the kinetics of pore volume loss and quartz water reactions under nonhydrostatic hydrothermal conditions in flow through reactors rate laws for creep and mineral water reaction are derived from the time rate of change of pore volume sand water dissolution kinetics and flow rate independent steady state silica concentrations and reveal functional dependencies of rates on grain size volume strain temperature effective pressure confining minus pore pressure and specific surface areas together the mechanical and chemical rate laws form a self consistent model for coupled deformation and water rock interaction of porous sands under nonhydrostatic conditions microstructural evidence shows a progressive widening of nominally circular and nominally flat grain grain contacts with increasing strain or equivalently porosity loss and small quartz overgrowths occurring at grain contact peripheries the mechanical and chemical data suggest that the dominant creep mechanism is due to removal of mass from grain contacts termed pressure solution or solution transfer with a lesser component of time dependent crack growth and healing the magnitude of a stress dependent concentration increase is too large to be accounted for by elastic or dislocation strain energy induced supersaturations favoring instead the normal stress dependence of molar gibbs free energy associated with grain grain interfaces

stress fields a key to oil migration a coherent oil migration model based on geomechanical considerations includes both the high molecular kerogen structure and the capillary properties of source rocks oil is squeezed from kerogen by compaction following oil generation this squeezing effect should be created by the differential stress maximum compressive stress minus least compressive stress acting on the kerogen which has been chemically broken up by oil formation in sedimentary bodies whose water is at hydrostatic pressure the migration of oil seems to involve two processes 1 lateral transfer by channeling into the more coarsely microporous layers of the source rocks from the oil generation site toward the geologic structure or lower pressured zone and 2 vertical transfer from source rock to eservoir by the opening or reopening of vertical fractures in the few areas such as structural tops where the least compressive stress is slightly greater than or equal to the pore pressure and where the capillary pressure increment 2 ggr r of oil in the microporosity exceeds the tensile strength of the rock in sedimentary bodies whose water is overpressured the pore pressure should be governed by the least compressive stress and thus migration should begin by oil transfers in a system of small open fractures and eventually in larger fractures the theory demonstrates the impossibility of oil being transferred to the reservoir under true tensile conditions negative effective compressive stress and thus explains the large asphaltic veins of southeastern turkey and the well known bitumen veins of the uinta basin

episodic rifting and subsidence in the south china sea the south china sea experienced at least three stages of rifting and two intervening stages of sea floor spreading since the early cretaceous its evolution can be described by an episodic model of tectonism one of thermal cooling and subsidence pulsed by temporally and spatially confined heating events analysis of regional geologic and geophysical data suggests episodes of rifting and associated thermal activities initiated during the late cretaceous the late eocene and the late early miocene the rift system corresponding to the first episode trends northeast southwest whereas those of the second and third trend east west these two trends coincide with the orientations of the major tectonic lineations within the basin age estimates from heat flow and bathymetric data suggest the oceanic crust in the southwest subbasin is considerably older 55 ma than that in the northwest 35 36 ma or east 32 ma subbasins the episodic tectonic model is supported by basin subsidence analysis subsidence especially subsidence rate curves derived from the regional well data demonstrates that unlike a classic atlantic passive margin thermal subsidence in the south china sea was punctuated by rapid subsidence events which are chronologically consistent with the rifting episodes in terms of hydrocarbon potential the episodes of rifting and drifting would be conducive to the development of overprinted structures and the deposition of several discrete transgressive packages of source rocks and reservoirs separated by widespread unconformities the thermal maturity of sedimentary organic matter affected by episodic rifting and subsidence may be greater than expected on a purely passive margin of equivalent age that had not experienced repeated heating

understanding of hc migration in sedimentary basins present state of knowledge abstract great advances were made during the decade of 1975 1985 in the understanding of hc migration by establishing that the main mechanisms were polyphasic flow whatever its stage and that migration in solution in water and or by molecular diffusion was insignificant except for methane ethane and benzene research is now focusing on points which still have not been satisfactorily answered such as 1 1 behaviour of source rocks during hc expulsion the main driving force for fluid expulsion has been recognized to be excess fluid pressure within the source rock with respect to its surrounding environment of permeable beds the pressure build up is due mainly to accommodation by the fluids of part of the mechanical stresses which are exerted on the rock mainly sedimentary load but also stresses developed by tectonics to thermal expansion of water and to hc formation from kerogen in response to increasing temperatures however it is not clear whether or not petroleum expulsion proceeds preferentially along oil wet networks kerogen or oil wet mineral surfaces nor it is not clear whether or not microfracturing provoked by an internal fluid pressure higher than allowed by the mechanical strength of source rocks is necessary for hc expulsion 2 2 modifications of the compositions of hc phases e g oil versus gas or the distribution of biomarkers during migration and losses of hydrocarbons along the migration pathways although careful observations of natural sample series and also experimentation have been done no clear picture has emerged for the moment however compositional effects seem to be due more to changes in thermodynamic conditions along migration pathways which provoke inter alia hydrocarbon phase separation retrograde condensation than to differential retention by mineral surfaces it is likely that while careful observations on a large variety of source rock samples are needed to more clearly understand source rocks functioning progress in understanding hc migration will come increasingly from modeling and experimentation models which mathematically simulate natural processes are necessary to help the human mind in handling such complex phenomena and therefore are of precious help to focus research on the most important points they replace migration in its geological and historical dimensions with numerical or conceptual tools while observation only describes the present state models are also the tools by which knowledge on migration can be applied to exploration problems however quantitative applications of models require numerous and precise geological data that are difficult to gather at early stages of exploration in the field of experimentation it will be easier to design crucial experiments now that hc migration mechanisms are better understood thanks to experimentation it should also be possible to validate models however so as to reach such aims substantial progress has to be made in the technology of experimental systems

overpressure dissipation mechanisms in sedimentary sections consisting of alternating mud sand layers abstract in stable subaqueous environments sedimentary deposition often results in thick mudstone rich successions with mainly argillaceous sediments containing some intercalated sandstone beds and siltstones laminae such depositional sequences are commonly hosting abnormally pressured fluids in some part of their structure abnormally pressured compartments generally overpressured ones are indicative of effective sealing conditions along their boundaries in order to prevent the dissipation of hydraulic pressure this work focuses on the various mechanisms of overpressure dissipation in such overpressured mudstone dominated systems the study is based on the mathematical and numerical simulation of hydraulic phenomena occurring in various geometries of sandstone mudstone series using 1d models it is shown that once overpressure is developed in such a compartment it can be kept inside for a very long time even if no other pressure process is acting a basic mechanism is that the mudstone sandstone succession reacts actively to pressure dissipation when overpressure is released outward of the compartment subsequent compaction tends to occur in the neighbouring sediments this in turn results in a continued pressure generation and tends to maintain the overpressure in the compartment at geological time scale natural hydraulic fracturing tends to dissipate overpressure but it does not release the entire overpressure because fracturing is a threshold mechanism which keeps the stress level in the seals at their hydraulic fracturing limit the opening of faults may modify the pressure pattern through the rapid generation of efficient fluid flow paths however its effect is a quasi instantaneous release of overpressures in sandstones but not in mudstones 2d numerical simulation suggests that once the fault is closed the overpressures remaining in mudstones are rapidly transmitted into adjacent sandstones which then tend to recover their previous high pressure the most efficient mechanisms of overpressure dissipation in mudstone overpressured compartments are large scale and long term tectonic uplift and resulting erosion of overburdens studies on the conditions and mechanisms of overpressure dissipation in mudstone rich successions provide insight into processes of hydrocarbon migration and accumulation processes and the efficiency of cap rock in basins that have experienced multiple episodes of tectonic disturbance

sedimentary basin deformation an incremental stress approach abstract a key component of sedimentary basin evolution is the spatial distribution and temporal variation of stress and deformation the many deformation processes poroelasticity fracturing irreversible nonlinear viscosity and pressure solution are inextricably bound in a tightly coupled network which in turn is coupled to a myriad of basin diagenetic thermal and hydrologic processes in the approach presented here the various deformation processes are integrated through an incremental stress approach together with mass momentum and energy conservation this approach yields a complete fully coupled basin model that captures basin and fault phenomena that are beyond the scope of simpler or decoupled models many of the most interesting basin phenomena are not only dependent on multiple coupled processes but also are fundamentally three dimensional to address this three dimensional complexity we have developed a numerical simulator using a moving adapting accreting finite element grid which is allowed to deform and to grow and adapt with the addition of sediment to capture smaller sedimentary features as a result our fully coupled comprehensive model allows one to solve a number of key problems in basin and fault dynamics these include compaction fractured reservoir and compartment genesis and dynamics examples illustrating these applications are presented for idealized systems and the piceance basin colorado and the permian basin west texas the incremental stress rheology is found to be a powerful formalism for integrating basin hydrology diagenesis and mechanics

natural hydraulic cracking numerical model and sensitivity study abstract natural hydrofracturing caused by overpressure plays an important role in geopressure evolution and hydrocarbon migration in petroliferous basins its mechanism is quite well understood in the case of artificial hydraulic fracturing triggered by high pressure fluid injection in a well this is not so for natural hydraulic fracturing which is assumed to initiate as micro cracks with large influence on the permeability of the medium the mechanism of natural hydraulic cracking triggered by increasing pore pressure during geological periods is studied using a fracturing model coupled to the physical processes occurring during basin evolution in this model the hydraulic cracking threshold is assumed to lie between the classical failure limit and the beginning of dilatancy fluid pressure evolution is calculated iteratively in order to allow dynamic adjustment of permeability so that the fracturing limit is always preserved the increase of permeability is interpreted on the basis of equivalent fractures it is found that fracturing is very efficient to keep a stress level at the rock s hydraulic cracking limit a fracture permeability one order of magnitude larger than the intrinsic permeability of the rock would be enough observations reported from actual basins and model results strongly suggest that natural hydraulic cracking occurs continuously to keep the pressure at the fracturing limit under relaxed stress conditions

cause of shale gas geochemical anomalies and mechanisms for gas enrichment and depletion in high maturity shales abstract this article reviews the abnormal characteristics of shale gases natural gases produced from organic rich shales and discusses the cause of the anomalies and mechanisms for gas enrichment and depletion in high maturity organic rich shales the reported shale gas geochemical anomalies include rollover of iso alkane normal alkane ratios rollover of ethane and propane isotopic compositions abnormally light ethane and propane 13 c values as well as isotope reversals among methane ethane and propane these anomalies reflect the complex histories of gas generation and associated isotopic fractionation as well as in situ mixing and accumulation of gases generated from different precursors at different thermal maturities a model was proposed to explain the observed geochemical anomalies gas generation from kerogen cracking at relatively low thermal maturity accounted for the increase of iso alkane normal alkane ratios and ethane and propane 13 c values normal trend simultaneous cracking of kerogen retained oil and wet gas and associated isotopic fractionation at higher maturity caused decreasing iso alkane normal alkane ratios lighter ethane and propane 13 c and corresponding conversion of carbon isotopic distribution patterns from normal through partial reversal to complete reversal relatively low oil expulsion efficiency at peak oil generation low expulsion efficiency at peak gas generation and little gas loss during post generation evolution are necessary for organic rich shales to display the observed geochemical anomalies high organic matter richness high thermal maturity high degrees of kerogen gas and oil gas conversions and late stage the stage of peak gas generation and post generation evolution closed system accounted for gas enrichment in shales loss of free gases during post generation evolution may result in gas depletion or even undersaturation total gas content lower than the gas sorption capacity in high maturity organic rich shales

three dimensional glacial flow and surface elevation measured with radar interferometry outlet glaciers which serve to drain ice from ice sheets seem to be dynamically less stable in north greenland than in south greenland1 2 3 storstrommen a large outlet glacier in northeastern greenland which surged between 1978 and 1984 ref 2 has been well studied in general neither glacier surge mechanisms nor the geographical distribution of the surges are well known conventional satellite radar interferometry can provide large scale topography models with high resolution4 and can measure the radar line of sight component of ice flow vectors5 but cannot map full vector flow fields here we present an interferometry method that combines observations from descending and ascending satellite orbits which assuming ice flow parallel to the topographic surface allows us to use the differing view angles to estimate full three dimensional surface flow patterns the accuracy of our technique is confirmed by the good agreement between our radar based flow model and in situ global positioning system gps reference data at storstrommen radar measurements such as these made regularly and at high spatial density have the potential to substantially enhance our understanding of glacier dynamics and ice sheet flow as well as improve the accuracy of glacier mass balance estimates

overpressuring mechanisms in the yinggehai basin south china sea yinggehai basin is an elongate cenozoic rift basin on the northwestern margin of the south china sea continental shelf its thick 17 km basin fill is characterized by high geothermal gradient and high overpressure overpressure associated with nonequilibrium compaction mainly occurs at depths more than 2800 m at the basin center and more than 4000 m at the basin margin because the shallow buried neogene and quaternary strata lack effective seals this regional overpressure distribution however is disrupted at basin center where high overpressure occurs in permeable formations at a depth as shallow as 1400 m on top of a series of deep seated faults and fractures we studied the processes and mechanisms of overpressuring via numerical modeling that couples basin filling sediment compaction and thermal and pressure fields to approach the origin of the shallow high overpressure model results indicated that an increase of fluid volume due to natural gas generation by organic cracking is not large enough to generate the overpressure because of the limited amount of organic matter the shallow overpressure has probably been generated allogenically deep open faults have served as vertical hydraulic conduits and channeled the deep high pressure into shallow permeable formations

numerical simulation of long term storage of co2 in yanchang shale reservoir of the ordos basin in china abstract shale reservoirs have attracted increasing attention in recent years as a new and promising geological repository for carbon dioxide co 2 storage however their long term storage mechanism is unclear and the interactions between co 2 adsorption to shale and the co 2 water rock reactions have not been investigated a 2 d simplified reactive transport model is developed in this paper based on the properties of a shale reservoir in the ordos basin in china which has been identified as a promising location for shale gas production and co 2 storage the model is used to study the co 2 water rock reactions coupled with gas adsorption and to identify the long term trapping mechanisms of co 2 in shale gas results show that in short several decades to middle term hundreds of years co 2 storage in a shale reservoir 60 co 2 is trapped in the supercritical and adsorbed phases but in the long term thousands of years mineral trapping gradually plays a dominant role among other storage mechanisms the displacement of ch 4 with co 2 during injection is also analyzed results show that this process can be divided into two stages the pre displacement stage during which the adsorbed concentrations of both ch 4 and co 2 increase due to pressure build up but due to low concentration of co 2 displacement does not occur at this stage and the displacement stage during which the co 2 concentration is high enough to displace the ch 4 from the host rock also higher pressure facilitates the displacement of ch 4 by co 2 in this stage study of the interaction between gas adsorption and co 2 water rock reactions shows that by buffering the reservoir pressure during co 2 injection into the subsurface gas adsorption can impact the solubility trapping process so as to interfere with the co 2 water rock reactions furthermore this interference is intensified with reduction in co 2 concentration in the reservoir over time sensitivity analysis indicates that variations in the co 2 adsorption isotherm abundance of smectite and chlorite reaction rate and reactive surface area of smectite can significantly affect the co 2 storage by different trapping mechanisms the high co 2 adsorption capacity of shale is very beneficial for co 2 injection into a shale reservoir the amount of adsorbed co 2 is proportional to the co 2 adsorption isotherm while co 2 in other phases gas supercritical phase dissolved phase and mineral phase is inversely related to the co 2 adsorption isotherm smectite and chlorite are the key minerals that influence the co 2 water rock reactions in yanchang shale

interferometric estimation of three dimensional ice flow using ascending and descending passes satellite radar interferometry sri provides an important new tool for determining ice flow velocity interferometric measurements made from a single track direction are sensitive only to a single component of the three component velocity vector observations from along three different track directions would allow the full velocity vector to be determined a north south looking synthetic aperture radar sar could provide these observations over large portions of the globe but not over large areas of the polar ice sheets the authors develop and demonstrate a technique that allows the three component velocity vector to be estimated from data acquired along two track directions ascending and descending under a surface parallel flow assumption this technique requires that there are accurate estimates of the surface slope which are also determined interferometrically to demonstrate the technique the authors estimate the three component velocity field for the ryder glacier greenland their results are promising although they do not have yet ground truth data with which to determine the accuracy of their estimates

mechanisms of shale gas storage implications for shale gas exploration in china this article reviews the mechanisms of shale gas storage and discusses the major risks or uncertainties for shale gas exploration in china at a given temperature and pressure the gas sorption capacities of organic rich shales are primarily controlled by the organic matter richness but may be significantly influenced by the type and maturity of the organic matter mineral composition especially clay content moisture content pore volume and structure resulting in different ratios of gas sorption capacity gsc to total organic carbon content for different shales in laboratory experiments the gsc of organic rich shales increases with increasing pressure and decreases with increasing temperature under geologic conditions assuming hydrostatic pressure gradient and constant thermal gradient the gsc increases initially with depth due to the predominating effect of pressure passes through a maximum and then decreases because of the influence of increasing temperature at greater depth this pattern of variation is quite similar to that observed for coals and is of great significance for understanding the changes in gsc of organic rich shales over geologic time as a function of burial history at an elevated temperature and pressure and with the presence of moisture the gas sorption capacities of organic rich shales are quite low as a result adsorption alone cannot protect sufficient gas for high maturity organic rich shales to be commercial gas reservoirs two models are proposed to predict the variation of gsc and total gas content over geologic time as a function of burial history high contents of free gas in organic rich shales can be preserved in relatively closed systems loss of free gas during postgeneration uplift and erosion may result in undersaturation the total gas contents lower than the sorption capacity and is the major risk for gas exploration in marine organic rich shales in china

a mini surge on the ryder glacier greenland observed by satellite radar interferometry satellite radar interferometry reveals that the speed of the ryder glacier increased roughly threefold and then returned to normal 100 to 500 meters year over a 7 week period near the end of the 1995 melt season the accelerated flow represents a substantial though short lived change in ice discharge during the period of rapid motion meltwater filled supraglacial lakes may have drained which could have increased basal water pressure and caused the mini surge there are too few velocity measurements on other large outlet glaciers to determine whether this type of event is a widespread phenomenon in greenland but because most other outlet glaciers are at lower latitudes they should experience more extensive melting making them more susceptible to meltwater induced surges

porosity and consolidation limits of sediments and gassmann s elastic wave equation the elastic framework properties of sediments relate to porosity porosity relates to the state of consolidation of sediments the full range of quasi static elastic moduli vs porosity behavior can be incorporated into gassmann s 1951 equations i review the atterberg 1911 limits to establish a basis for discussing the precompaction porosity 0 which corresponds approximately to the atterberg plastic limit this porosity is about 0 36 0 40 for sands and sandstones the ratio of the dry frame moduli to the effective mineral moduli is 1 0 i incorporate this ratio into gassmann s equations which operate from 0 0 when sediments have a solid elastic frame for s 0 when sediments no longer have a solid elastic frame gassmann s equations reduce to reuss 1929 isostress average for the solid fluid mixture

estimation of ice sheet motion using satellite radar interferometry method and error analysis with application to humboldt glacier greenland satellite radar interferometry provides glaciologists with an important new tool for determining the motion and topography of large ice sheets we examine the sources of error in interferometrically derived ice motion measurements including those errors due to inaccurate estimates of the interferometric baseline several simulations are used to assess baseline accuracy in terms of tie point error and the number and distribution of tie points these results give insight into how best to select tie points and also demonstrate the level of accuracy that can be achieved examination of two representative cases likely to occur in mapping ice sheet motion leads to the conclusion that with adequate tie point information ice velocity can be measured accurately to within a few meters per year a method to correct horizontal velocity estimates for the effect of vertical displacement using surface slopes is also developed finally we estimate the single component velocity field for an area on humboldt glacier northern greenland using interferograms formed from ers i sar images we estimate that these velocity measurements are accurate to within 2 3 m year 1

episodic basin wide fluid expulsion from geopressured shale sequences in the north sea basin a proposed general model for the episodic dewatering of thick shale successions is based on the recognition of a pervasive polygonal extensional fault network developed in the dominantly fine grained lower tertiary of the north sea basin seismic data show that the faults are arranged in stratigraphically bound structural units tiers that are delimited vertically by almost undeformed condensed sections and are restricted in distribution to the lowest permeability slope and basin floor facies i propose an episodic three stage mechanism to explain the fault genesis involving 1 the development of basin wide overpressured compartments 2 a density inversion between the overpres sured units and the overlying seal and 3 natural hydraulic fracturing pressure bleed off and resealing of the pressure compartment leading to a repeat of the cycle

ice flow dynamics of the greenland ice sheet from sar interferometry synthetic aperture radar sar interferograms produced from esa s ers 1 satellite provide the first synoptic view of ice flow dynamics of the western sector of the greenland ice sheet glacial motion is detected in the radar ranging direction at millimetric scales across a complete sequence of snow accumulation and melting regimes despite significant variations in their radar scattering properties ice flow evolves from a slow regular motion at the higher elevations at lower elevations motion is strongly convoluted by meter scale undulations in surface topography which have a unique interferometric signature that enables a novel approach for retrieving flow direction inferred flow directions combined with surface displacements in the radar ranging direction yield ice velocity estimates that are within 6 of in situ measurements gathered along a 40 km survey line application of repeat pass sar interferometry to the entire greenland ice sheet should enable precise mapping of its ice flow dynamics at an unprecedented level of spatial detail