recognition of 18β h oleanane in several crudes and tertiary upper cretaceous sediments definition of a new maturity parameter abstract ekweozor et al chem geol 27 11 28 and 29 37 first discovered an unknown compound with a gc retention time very close to that of the 18 h olenane peak in oils and tertiary sediments of the nigerian delta this compound was called j several authors wang et al advances in organic geochemistry 1981 pp 108 113 wiley chichester 1983 schoelle et al ibid pp 156 163 reported the occurrence of 18 h oleanane without underlying the presence of j because of their coelution in this study the presence of j has been confirmed in more than 150 rock extracts and 19 oils from different countries and is identified as the 18 h oleanane by comparison to retention time and mass spectrum and by its coelution with an authentic standard apart from tertiary sediments the 18 h and 18 h oleananes have also been found in upper cretaceous sediments which extends the occurrence of these compounds back in age a maturity correlation has been found between the relative concentration of 18 h oleanane and 18 h oleanane in fact an increase in the 18 h 18 h oleanane ratio has been observed with increasing depth in several wells the 18 h 18 h oleanane ratio has been correlated with other classical maturity parameters i e ts tm ro and tmax

the fluid dynamics of a basaltic magma chamber replenished by influx of hot dense ultrabasic magma this paper describes a fluid dynamical investigation of the influx of hot dense ultrabasic magma into a reservoir containing lighter fractionated basaltic magma this situation is compared with that which develops when hot salty water is introduced under cold fresh water theoretical and empirical models for salt water systems are adapted to develop a model for magmatic systems a feature of the model is that the ultrabasic melt does not immediately mix with the basalt but spreads out over the floor of the chamber forming an independent layer a non turbulent interface forms between this layer and the overlying magma layer across which heat and mass are transferred by the process of molecular diffusion both layers convect vigorously as heat is transferred to the upper layer at a rate which greatly exceeds the heat lost to the surrounding country rock the convection continues until the two layers have almost the same temperature the compositions of the layers remain distinct due to the low diffusivity of mass compared to heat the temperatures of the layers as functions of time and their cooling rate depend on their viscosities their thermal properties the density difference between the layers and their thicknesses for a layer of ultrabasic melt 18 mgo a few tens of metres thick at the base of a basaltic 10 mgo magma chamber a few kilometres thick the temperature of the layers will become nearly identical over a period of between a few months and a few years during this time the turbulent convective velocities in the ultrabasic layer are far larger than the settling velocity of olivines which crystallise within the layer during cooling olivines only settle after the two layers have nearly reached thermal equilibrium at this stage residual basaltic melt segregates as the olivines sediment in the lower layer depending on its density the released basalt can either mix convectively with the overlying basalt layer or can continue as a separate layer the model provides an explanation for large scale cyclic layering in basic and ultrabasic intrusions the model also suggests reasons for the restriction of erupted basaltic liquids to compositions with mgo 10 and the formation of some quench textures in layered igneous rocks

hydrocarbon composition of authigenic inclusions application to elucidation of petroleum reservoir filling history abstract geochemical analysis of petroleum inclusions trapped in authigenic feldspar and quartz in the ula formation in the north sea ula oil field revealed a petroleum of markedly different composition than the oil presently in the reservoir using microthermometry and the burial history as a dating tools it is concluded that the petroleum in the k feldspar inclusions was present in the more porous and permeable parts of the ula formation as early as 45 75 my bp when the field was at a depth of about 1 0 1 5 km as compared with the current depth of 3 4 km this early petroleum which was trapped as inclusions in authigenic k feldspar shows a distinctly different distribution of tricyclic terpanes and pentacyclic triterpanes from that of the current petroleum charge in the ula formation which was derived from the mandal formation source rock in late neogene time molecular parameters show that the oil in the k feldspar inclusions is significantly less mature than the crude oil in the present reservoir the approximate 90 c temperature increase occurring after entrapment of the early petroleum in kfeldspar the field is currently at 143 c appears not to have reset the low maturity signature of the oil in the k feldspar inclusions this could suggest that the temperature in the inclusions is too low for isomerization selective thermal degradation to occur lack of catalysts or that there are other controls on the ratio of some of these parameters still parameters like the ratio of c21 to c28 triaromatic steroids and those based on dimethyl and trimethyl naphthalenes are comparatively similar in both the inclusions and in the reservoir crude the oil inclusions in authigenic quartz and albite formed from about 10 my bp burial depth 2 5 km until the present burial depth 3 4 km are interpreted as representing a palaeo petroleum charge having a composition intermediate between the oil found in k feldspar inclusions and the oil charge in the present reservoir our data suggest strongly that the petroleum trapped in the inclusions in quartz and plagioclase represents progressive dilution of the early reservoired oil now found only in k feldspar inclusions with oil from the mandal formation analysis of solution gas in these inclusions suggests that the first petroleum associated gas to arrive at the trap from the progressively maturing mandal formation had a much wetter composition than the current reservoir solution gas to explain the present comparatively drier and isotopically lighter reservoir solution gas composition the inference is made that there has been a recent during formation of k feldspar inclusions 45 75 my bp maturation of the upper jurassic mandal formation the main source rock in this region was limited possibly to the graben axis this suggests that the petroleum found in the k feldspar inclusions was most likely derived from a deeper post caledonian palaeozoic formation

a geochemical reconstruction of oil generation in the barrow sub basin of western australia abstract a suite of crude oils and petroleum source rock extracts from the barrow sub basin of western australia have been analysed for biological marker compounds by capillary gc ms and for volatile hydrocarbons by whole oil capillary gc these analyses were used to calculate values for twenty three biomarker parameters in order to assess aspects of source type maturity migration and biodegradation of the hydrocarbons the crude oils had a source in the upper jurassic dingo claystone formation these hydrocarbons accumulated in the reservoir sands and in some cases were biodegraded several accumulation and biodegradation episodes have been recognised while the basin continued to subside which resulted in a suite of oils showing marked differences in composition

petroleum source rock identification of united kingdom atlantic margin oil fields and the western canadian oil sands using platinum palladium osmium and rhenium implications for global petroleum systems this study demonstrates that petroleum and source rocks are enriched in pt and pd to the ppb level and that the 187os 188os composition coupled with the pt pd value permits the fingerprinting of petroleum to its source oils from the united kingdom atlantic margin sourced from the upper jurassic kimmeridge clay fm as well as source rock samples have been analysed for pt and pd when the pt pd value is compared with 187os 188os calculated at the time of oil generation osg the values from both the known source and the oils are similar demonstrating that they can be used as an oil to source fingerprinting tool this inorganic petroleum fingerprinting tool is particularly important in heavily biodegraded petroleum systems where traditional fingerprinting techniques e g biomarkers are severely hampered e g the world s largest oil sand deposit the west canadian oil sands wcos this has caused the source of the wcos to be hotly debated with no present day consensus between inputs from potential source units e g exshaw and gordondale fms 187os 188os and pt pd fingerprinting of the oil sands shows that the majority of the petroleum have similar 187os 188os and pt pd values supporting the hypothesis of one principal source analysis of the potential source rocks establishes that the principal source of the oil sands to be from the jurassic gordondale fm with a minor exshaw fm input thus the combination of previously pioneered re os petroleum geochronology with 187os 188os and pt pd values of petroleum permits both a temporal and spatial understanding of petroleum systems

sulfur degassing due to contact metamorphism during flood basalt eruptions abstract we present a study aimed at quantifying the potential for generating sulfur rich gas emissions from the devolatilization of sediments accompanying sill emplacement during flood basalt eruptions the potential contribution of sulfur rich gases from sediments might augment substantially the magma derived sulfur gases and hence impact regional and global climate we demonstrate from a detailed outcrop scale study that sulfur and total organic carbon have been devolatilized from shales immediately surrounding a 3 m thick dolerite sill on the isle of skye scotland localized partial melting occurred within a few centimetres of the contact in the shale generating melt filled cracks pyrite decomposed on heating within 80 cm of the contact generating sulfur rich gases a mixture of h2s and so2 and pyrrhotite the pyrrhotite shows 32s enrichment due to loss of 34s enriched so2 further decomposition and oxidation of pyrrhotite resulted in hematite and or magnetite within a few cm of the contact iron sulfates were produced during retrogressive cooling and oxidation within 20 cm of the contact decarbonation of the sediments due to heating is also observed particularly along the upper contact of the sill where increasing i 13c is consistent with loss of methane gas the geochemical and mineralogical features observed in the shales are consistent with a short lived intrusion emplaced in 5 h the dolerite magma contains pervasive pyrite and localized sulfur concentrations greater than the sulfur concentration at sulfide liquid saturation consistent with addition of sulfur perhaps from sediments at a late stage our study provides evidence for desulfurization as well as decarbonation of shales adjacent to an igneous intrusion the liberated fluids rich in sulfur and carbon are likely to be focused along regions of low pore fluid pressure along the margins of the sill the sulfur gases liberated from the sediments would have augmented the sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide yield of the eruption substantially had they reached the surface this enhancement of the magmatic sulfur budget has important implications for the climate impact of large flood basalt eruptions that erupt through thick volatile rich sedimentary sequences

density changes during the fractional crystallization of basaltic magmas fluid dynamic implications the dynamical behaviour of basaltic magma chambers is fundamentally controlled by the changes that occur in the density of magma as it crystallizes in this paper the term fractionation density is introduced and defined as the ratio of the gram formula weight to molar volume of the chemical components in the liquid phase that are being removed by fractional crystallization removal of olivine and pyroxene whose values of fractionation density are larger than the density of the magma causes the density of residual liquid to decrease removal of plagioclase with fractionation density less than the magma density can cause the density of residual liquid to increase during the progressive differentiation of basaltic magma density decreases during fractionation of olivine olivine pyroxene and pyroxene assemblages when plagioclase joins these mafic phases magma density can sometimes increase leading to a density minimum calculations of melt density changes during fractionation show that compositional effects on density are usually greater than associated thermal effects in the closed system evolution of basaltic magma several stages of distinctive fluid dynamical behaviour can be recognised that depend on the density changes which accompany crystallization as well as on the geometry of the chamber in an early stage of the evolution where olivine and or pyroxenes are the fractionating phases compositional stratification can occur due to side wall crystallization and replenishment by new magma with the most differentiated magma tending to accumulate at the roof of the chamber when plagioclase becomes a fractionating phase a zone of well mixed magma with a composition close to the density minimum of the system can form in the chamber the growth of a zone of constant composition destroys the stratification in the chamber a chamber of well mixed magma is maintained while further differentiation occurs unless the walls of the chamber slope inwards in which case dense boundary layer flows can lead to stable stratification of cool differentiated magma at the floor of the chamber in a basaltic magma chamber replenished by primitive magma the new magma ponds at the base and evolves until it reaches the same density and composition as overlying magma successive cycles of replenishment of primitive magma can also form compositional zonation if successive cycles occur before internal thermal equilibrium is reached in a chamber in a chamber containing well mixed plagioclase saturated magma the primitive magma can be either denser or lighter than the resident magma in the first case the new magma ponds at the base and fractionates until it reaches the same density as the evolved magma mixing then occurs between magmas of different temperatures and compositions in the second case a turbulent plume is generated that causes the new magma to mix immediately with the resident magma

re os geochronology and fingerprinting of united kingdom atlantic margin oil temporal implications for regional petroleum systems we demonstrate that the re os system can be used to understand the temporal evolution of a petroleum system as well as aid in the identification of source units traditional geochemical methods high performance liquid chromatography carbon isotope gas chromatography and biomarker analysis indicate that the main source of 18 oils analyzed for re os geochronology from the united kingdom atlantic margin clair schiehallion cuillin and foinaven fields is late jurassic marine shales this is supported by the os isotopic composition 187 os 188 os of the late jurassic source 0 9 2 4 at the timing of oil generation being similar to that of the oil 68 ma 0 92 1 12 indicating that the re os system can potentially be used to fingerprint the source of an oil the re os data for the 18 oils yield an age 68 13 ma that agrees with both the relative basin models and absolute ar ar geochronology timing of oil generation indicating that that re os oil geochronology records oil generation events

some effects of viscosity on the dynamics of replenished magma chambers some aspects of the dynamical behavior of magma chambers replenished from below with hotter but denser magma have been modeled in a series of laboratory experiments in previously reported work the fluids used were aqueous solutions of comparable viscosity and thus the results should be applicable to basaltic magma chambers in which the magmas do not vary greatly in viscosity in that case the lower layer cools by convective heat transfer to the fluid above and crystallization causes the density of the residual liquid in the lower layer to decrease when the density becomes equal to that in the upper layer sudden overturning and intimate mixing take place the present paper reports experimental results that allow us to extend the application to systems in which there is a large viscosity ratio between the resident and the injected fluid for example to calcalkaline magmas where magma viscosity can vary by as much as 5 orders of magnitude the largest viscosity ratio in our experiments about 3000 was achieved using cold glycerine for the upper layer above a hot denser kno3 solution the most striking new feature with the very viscous upper layer is that now less dense fluid is released immediately and continuously from the interface and rises as plumes through the upper layer further crystallization occurs in the plumes and the crystals fall out but there is little mixing and a layer of depleted kno3 solution is eventually deposited at the top the transfer process between the layers is dominated by interfacial effects with the high viscosity upper layer acting as a nearly rigid lid that allows buoyant fluid to accumulate just below the interface and then rise in localized plumes across the interface into the viscous layer this physical picture is supported by a series of experiments in which the viscosity ratio is varied systematically the mixing behavior changes gradually between that described above for a large viscosity ratio and the sudden over turning characteristic of layers with comparable viscosity the importance of the viscosity ratio rather than just an increase in viscosity is confirmed by experiments in which both viscosities are increased by the same factor the overturning process is then slower but symmetrical other variations suggested by previous experiments are also described the release of gas by a chemical reaction to model the release of volatiles following an overturning event in a magma chamber the effect of a cold immiscible layer above the cooling crystallizing fluid the influence of two viscous layers with a density step between them and the constraining effects of a density with corresponding viscosity gradient in the upper region the experiments indicate that whatever the stratification whether it be in layers or continuous the form of the initial motion in the upper fluid is determined by the viscosity ratio between the two fluids immediately adjacent to the interface geological applications are not examined in detail in this paper but the experiments suggest that both sudden overturning characteristic of magmas of nearly equal viscosity and continuous release when the upper layer is much more viscous are viable mechanisms for magma mixing in the appropriate circumstances

late palaeozoic hydrocarbon migration through the clair field west of shetland uk atlantic margin geochemical analysis of bitumen and hydrocarbon bearing fluid inclusions from the devonian carboniferous clair field indicates that the reservoirs contain a mixture of oils from different marine and lacustrine sources reconstruction of the clair field oil charge history using fluid inclusion petrography show that oil charging occurred at times of k feldspar quartz and calcite cementation temperature composition time data yielded from the integration of fluid inclusion microthermometry with high resolution ar ar dating date hydrocarbon bearing k feldspar overgrowths at 247 3 3 ma these data show that in order for oil to be trapped within primary fluid inclusions in k feldspar overgrowths hydrocarbon migration throughout the uk atlantic margin must have been taking place during the late palaeozoic and as such current industry oil play models based solely on oil charging from jurassic cretaceous marine sources are clearly incomplete and need revision apatite fission track analysis and vitrinite reflectance data were used to reconstruct thermal burial histories and assess potential oil generation from middle devonian lacustrine source rocks thermal history data from wells along the rona ridge adjacent to the clair field show that the palaeozoic section was heated to greater than 100 c at some time between 270 and 230 ma confirming that devonian source rocks were mature and expelling oil during the late palaeozoic at the time that authigenic k feldspar overgrowths were growing in the clair field

pyrolysis studies on the conversion of vitrinite reflectance and the primary productivity of various non marine source rocks in china abstract a wide range of sediments formed in various sedimentary environments including coals carbargillites shale and mudstones collected throughout china have been studied by laboratory pyrolysis the results show that the vitrinite reflectivity ro values of these samples generally increase with an increase of pyrolysis temperature however the degree of increase in vitrinite reflectance is different from sample to sample the corresponding pyrolysing temperatures for the peak generation of liquid hydrocarbons also reveal the apparent fluctuation among the samples these variations are largely controlled by the properties of the source rock and types of organic matter which are closely related to the primary sedimentary environments therefore the sedimentary environment age and the buried history should be considered when ro and hydrocarbon yield of source rock are used to assess the source rock and basin

an organic geochemical profile of the toarcian anoxic event in northern italy abstract a suite of black shales calcareous shales and limestones representing the toarcian anoxic event jurassic 192 ma was collected from a 14 m length of core taken from the belluno trough northern italy and examined in detail to assess variations in depositional environment during this interval geochemical and optical data indicate organic matter of algal and bacterial origin with only trace contribution from terrestrial sources detailed biological marker data interpreted with the aid of multivariate statistics demonstrate fluctuations in primary producers and bacterial populations during black shale deposition the onset of the anoxic event was not abrupt but characterized by an apparent gradual development of anoxia and consequent enhanced organic matter preservation different hopane biomarkers proved especially useful in recognizing preservation potential in the section and correlate well with other preservation indicators increased oxygenation at the end of the event may have been associated with changes in primary productivity

geochemical comparison of oil bearing fluid inclusions and produced oil from the toro sandstone papua new guinea abstract a detailed study was carried out to compare the geochemistry of the crude oil in the lower cretaceous toro sandstone reservoir in the iagifu 7x well with oil trapped in fluid inclusions in this sandstone in the iagifu 7x and p nyang 2x wells in the papuan fold belt the drill stem test dst oils and the oils trapped in fluid inclusions show different source and maturity dependent geochemical parameters biomarkers suggest that the dst oils at iagifu 7x were derived from clay rich mixed marine terrestrial source rocks deposited under oxic conditions probably middle to late jurassic mudstones the fluid inclusion oils were derived from a less terrestrially influenced marine source rock deposited under less oxic conditions the fluid inclusion oils contain 1 2 7 trimethylnaphthalene and oleanane biomarkers indicative of angiosperm input and a cretaceous or younger source rock these oils are more mature calculated reflectance rc 1 02 than the reservoired oil at iagifu 7x rc 0 84 and condensate at p nyang 2x rc 0 84 source and thermal maturity parameters for all three fluid inclusion samples are similar suggesting that they were derived from similar source rock facies furthermore samples with predominantly blue vs white fluorescing oil inclusions have no discernible geochemical maturity difference suggesting that the use of fluorescence colours as a qualitative guide to the maturity of the trapped oil is not valid in this case fluid inclusion oils were trapped prior to charge of the reservoir with oil at the iagifu 7x and gas condensate at the p nyang 2x wells the fluid inclusion oils therefore represent an early oil charge from a deeply buried probably cretaceous source rock which started migrating into the toro sandstone during the miocene at iagifu this early oil was probably diluted by a larger volume of jurassic oil generated at the end of the miocene the absence of fluid inclusions with compositions like the currently reservoired oil is interpreted to be due to oil charging an already oil saturated zone when diagenesis is likely to have been inhibited at the p nyang well the transition from oil as represented by the oil inclusions to gas condensate was most likely caused by gas displacement

mixing and biodegradation of hydrocarbons in the daerqi oilfield baiyinchagan depression northern china abstract crude oils in the daerqi oilfield vary greatly in viscosities including normal viscous and highly viscous oils they are also dramatically different in thermal maturity from immature to mature based on biomarker parameters according to bulk and molecular geochemical characteristics crude oils can be classified into three groups in this oilfield group i oils are mature and derived from the deeply buried and relatively old source rocks within the tengger formation and the second member of the arshan formation of early cretaceous age group ii oils are immature to marginally mature and derived from the relatively young source rocks that experienced shallow burial within the first member of the duhongmu formation of earlier cretaceous age group iii oils are mixtures of group i and group ii oils with dominance of the group i oils 70 the viscosity is low for the non biodegraded group i and group iii oils 7 1 24 mpa s but very high for the non biodegraded group ii oils e g 433 104 mpa s for the representative oil da12o1 the group iii oils are similar to the group i oils in gross properties e g gross composition and viscosity but are similar to group ii oils in terms of their molecular maturity parameters the oil reservoirs are currently at a shallow depth

25 norhopanes formation during biodegradation of petroleum in the subsurface abstract quantitative data from petroleum systems in china liaohe basin and canada athabasca tar sands support the theory that 25 norhopanes are produced during biodegradation of petroleum in the subsurface within a single oil column both case histories showed increasing severity of degradation indicated by destruction of hopanes and production of 25 norhopanes downward to the oil water contact in the athabasca samples between the peters k e moldowan j m 1993 the biomarker guide interpreting molecular fossils in petroleum and ancient sediments prentice hall englewood cliffs new jersey p 363 scale of biodegradation levels 5 9 concentrations of c 28 20s triaromatic steroids and other biodegradation resistant compounds increased by 35 reflecting a concentration effect as a consequence of removal of more degradable compounds over the same interval the concentrations of c 28 17 25 norhopane and c 29 17 25 norhopane increased by an order of magnitude thus requiring that the balance be met by their net production during degradation a detailed molecular investigation of the athabasca bitumen revealed that c 30 17 hopane degrades faster than c 29 17 hopane whilst the rate of formation of both c 29 17 25 norhopane and c 28 17 25 norhopane are similar complicating a straightforward interpretation of demethylation of hopanes to form 25 norhopanes hopane degradation in the athabasca tar sand may also occur without the production of 25 norhopanes the results show that even within a single petroleum accumulation a number of mechanisms control changes in the abundance and composition of hopanes and 25 norhopanes

fluid motions and compositional gradients produced by crystallization or melting at vertical boundaries the results of a continuing series of laboratory experiments designed to model the fluid motions which accompany crystallization are both described and related in a preliminary way to prototype flows in magma chambers previous experiments have demonstrated the importance of compositional inhomogeneity produced by crystallization and melting in a thermal gradient and coupled with double diffusive effects in driving convective flows which result in thermal and compositional stratification in an originally homogeneous fluid the present experiments examine effects produced in tanks cooled at the side by the upward flow of a less dense boundary layer depleted in the crystallizing component as crystals grow on the side wall these processes are examined in simple two and three component aqueous systems h2o na2co3 h2o na2co3 k2co3 h2o cuso4 na2so4 with one and two crystallizing phases in each of these systems an initially downward flow of a cooled boundary layer against the side wall is reversed as crystallization commences and depletes the boundary layer in the crystallizing component accumulation of this cooler but lighter depleted fluid at the top of the chamber produces thermal and compositional layering by a filling box mechanism partly modified by interchange between the boundary layer and the convecting layers outside when more than one component is present in the solution the crystallization process produces a differentiated fluid column i e one with compositional gradients which are different for each of the components the compositional and thermal distributions within the fluid change with time but finally appear to reach a steady state these distributions are the integrated result of compositional changes produced by crystallization from a thin boundary layer a small proportion of the bulk fluid which evolves in composition and temperature independently of the bulk fluid in a manner controlled by the dynamics of the system the paths of fluid evolution and the resulting sequence and abundance of crystalline products are very different from those predicted on the basis of simple thermally driven crystallization in the static system disequilibrium effects probably involving different kinetics of crystallization of different crystals in part determine crystallization in the experimental system these may or may not be important in real magmatic systems there is still much to learn before even the behaviour in these simple experimental systems is understood fully and the application of the results to the interpretation of the behaviour in real magma chambers in even further away however it is apparent that dynamic effects provide an additional degree of freedom in crystallization processes and allow evolution of small increments of solution to compositions much further along crystallization paths than that allowed in static equilibrium systems petrologists will have to free their thinking from classical constraints of static systems in order to interpret many magmatic phenomena

a diagenetic study of intrabasaltic siliciclastics sandstones from the rosebank field abstract the rosebank field contains producible hydrocarbons from paleocene eocene intrabasaltic fluvial and shallow marine siliciclastic sandstone reservoirs despite close proximity to volcanic lithologies the siliciclastic sandstones display very good reservoirs properties with permeability in the darcy range and porosity values ranging from 19 to 23 preservation of high quality reservoir properties is the result of low quantities of volcanic minerals in the siliciclastic sandstones and limited element diffusion e g fe and mg from adjacent basalts into siliciclastic reservoir sandstones the low content of volcanic derived detritus is most likely a result of the main sediment source being situated outside the volcanic terrain the effect is that formation of clay minerals smectites and or chlorites reducing permeability and porosity is low in contrast to the siliciclastic sandstones the pore space of the volcaniclastics is occupied by authigenic clays chlorite smectite and carbonates calcite and mg calcite resulting in poor reservoir quality this paper demonstrates that high quality reservoirs can be found in intrabasaltic siliciclastic reservoirs in depth analyses of core samples show that authigenic phases formed during progressive burial with temperatures up to 120 c the suite of diagenetic phases in siliciclastic sandstones between wells and the different colsay units vary and are interpreted to result from differences in pore water chemistry and or detrital mineralogy laumontite was formed as a late stage authigenic mineral restricted to cored colsay 1 and 3 units in well 213 26 1z and has not been observed in the neighbouring 213 27 2 core which may be explained by differences in pore water ph or co2 partial pressure the occurrence of laumontite is often associated with poor reservoir quality but due to the patchy distribution of this mineral in the rosebank reservoir sands it appears not to have affected reservoir quality

high pressure melting experiments on fe si alloys and implications for silicon as a light element in the core abstract we carried out melting experiments on fe si alloys to 127 gpa in a laser heated diamond anvil cell dac on the basis of textural and chemical characterizations of samples recovered from a dac a change in eutectic liquid composition in the fe fesi binary system was examined with increasing pressure the chemical compositions of coexisting liquid and solid phases were quantitatively determined with field emission type electron microprobes the results demonstrate that silicon content in the eutectic liquid decreases with increasing pressure to less than 1 5 0 1 wt si at 127 gpa if silicon is a single light element in the core 4 5 to 12 wt si is required in the outer core in order to account for its density deficit from pure iron however such a liquid core whose composition is on the si rich side of the eutectic point crystallizes less dense solid cscl b2 type phase at the inner core boundary icb our data also show that the difference in silicon concentration between coexisting solid and liquid is too small to account for the observed density contrast across the icb these indicate that silicon cannot be the sole light element in the core previous geochemical and cosmochemical arguments however strongly require 6 wt si in the core it is possible that the earth s core originally included 6 wt si but then became depleted in silicon by crystallizing sio2 or mgsio3

the jurassic petroleum system north and west of britain a geochemical oil source correlation study abstract recent significant oil discoveries have focused exploration attention on the atlantic margin areas north and west of britain in particular the west of shetlands area these discoveries the foinaven and schiehallion fields each have reserves of 250 to 500 million barrels 39 8 to 79 5 106 m3 of 24 27 api oil while an earlier heavy oil discovery the clair field is the largest undeveloped oil discovery on the u k continental shelf with resources estimated in the range 3 5 billion barrels 477 to 795 106 m3 other discoveries include suilven the very heavy oil in well 204 28 1 and the quadrant 205 strathmore and solan fields potential source rocks in areas adjacent to the west of shetlands include the upper jurassic kimmeridge clay formation equivalent the middle and lower jurassic and the middle devonian the results of geochemical studies of the oils reservoir core extracts and source rocks from released wells from these west of shetlands discoveries show them to be genetically related to north sea oils sourced from the kimmeridge clay formation equivalent detailed geochemical analysis biomarkers source rock reaction kinetics compound specific isotope analysis and fluid inclusion crush leach analysis of the clair field and foinaven complex oils showed that at least two episodes of charging from different source facies within the kimmeridge clay formation took place with an intervening biodegradation event oil charging from middle jurassic lacustrine source rocks is also indicated in the foinaven complex oils the source rocks are shown to exhibit variations in organic facies from very oil prone to mixed oil and gas with a corresponding range of kinetic parameters this complex generation migration and trapping scenario is directly linked with the tectonic evolution of the west of shetlands with major oil generation from very oil prone kimmeridge clay and middle jurassic lacustrine facies into shallow buried reservoirs biodegradation of the oils appears to have occurred shortly after migration into the traps followed later by a second charge of unaltered oil this appears to have been from a different source facies with more terrestrial slower reacting type ii iii kerogens similar to those seen in the kimmeridge clay formation or heather formation in wells on the basin margins kinetics studies show the middle and upper jurassic kerogens to be fast reacting and very oil prone with little potential for later gas generation this finding appears crucial in the understanding of the west of shetlands petroleum system as it explains the lack of large gas accumulations in a basin of such high thermal maturity

an experimental investigation of volatile exsolution in evolving magma chambers abstract previous laboratory experiments investigating the fluid dynamics of replenished magma chambers have been extended to model effects resulting from the release of gas turbulent transfer of heat between a layer of dense hot and volatile rich mafic magma overlying cooler more evolved magma can lead to crystallization and exsolution of volatiles in the lower layer small gas bubbles can cause the bulk density to decrease to that of the upper layer and thus produce sudden overturning and initiate mixing followed by further exsolution of gas and explosive eruption these processes have been modelled in the laboratory using a chemical reaction between sodium or potassium carbonate and nitric acid to release small bubbles of co 2 we have investigated both the initial overturning produced by gas release in the lower layer and the subsequent evolution of gas due to intimate mixing of the two layers the latter experiments in which the reactants remained isolated in the two layers until overturning occurred demonstrated unambiguously that the fluxes of chemical components across the interfaces between convecting layers are very slow compared to the flux of heat this shows that the evolution of layers of magma of different origins and composition can take place nearly independently of each other the magmas can coexist in the same stratified chamber until their bulk densities become equal and they mix together the processes illustrated in these experiments could occur in h 2 o bearing magmas such as in the calcalkaline association and in co 2 bearing mafic magmas such as in silica undersaturated suites

pyrolysis kinetics applied to prediction of oil generation in the maracaibo basin venezuela abstract we use chemical kinetic parameters for oil generation derived from modified rock eval and pyromat instruments coupled with thermal history models to predict the timing and extent of oil generation in the maracaibo basin of venezuela the vitrinite reflectance model developed at lawrence livermore national laboratory is used to calibrate thermal history models with measured vitrinite reflectance profiles we examine the way differences in the kinetic parameters affect predictions of maturation in several parts of the basin with different thermal histories maturity indicators such as h c atomic ratio of residual kerogen and api gravity of reservoired oil are compared to the calculated extent of oil generation we use the comparison to check the accuracy of the coupled oil generation and thermal history models

diagenesis and reservoir quality evolution of palaeocene deep water marine sandstones the shetland faroes basin british continental shelf abstract the palaeocene deep water marine sandstones recovered from six wells in the shetland faroes basin represent lowstand transgressive and highstand systems tract turbiditic sediments mineralogic petrographic and geochemical analyses of these siliciclastics are used to decipher and discuss the diagenetic alterations and subsequent reservoir quality evolution the middle upper palaeocene sandstones subarkoses to arkoses from the shetland faroes basin british continental shelf are submarine turbiditic deposits that are cemented predominantly by carbonates quartz and clay minerals carbonate cements intergranular and grain replacive calcite siderite ferroan dolomite and ankerite are of eogenetic and mesogenetic origins the eogenetic alterations have been mediated by marine meteoric and mixed marine meteoric porewaters and resulted mainly in the precipitation of calcite 18 o v pdb 10 9 and 3 8 trace amounts of non ferroan dolomite siderite 18 o v pdb 14 4 to 0 6 as well as smectite and kaolinite in the lowstand systems tract lst and highstand systems tract hst turbiditic sandstone below the sequence boundary minor eogenetic siderite has precipitated between expanded and kaolinitized micas primarily biotite the mesogenetic alterations are interpreted to have been mediated by evolved marine porewaters and resulted in the precipitation of calcite 18 o v pdb 12 9 to 7 8 and fe dolomite ankerite 18 o v pdb 12 1 to 6 3 at temperatures of 50 140 and 60 140 c respectively quartz overgrowths and outgrowth which post and pre date the mesogenetic carbonate cements is more common in the lst and tst of distal turbiditic sandstone discrete quartz cement which is closely associated with illite and chlorite is the final diagenetic phase the clay minerals include intergranular and grain replacive eogenetic kaolinite smectite and mesogenetic illite and chlorite kaolinite has been subjected to mesogenetic replacement by dickite the k feldspar and plagioclase grains have been albitized dissolution of calcite cement and of framework grain feldspar volcanic fragments and mud intraclasts has resulted in a considerable enhancement of reservoir quality

regional uplift gas hydrate dissociation and the origins of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum much of the north atlantic region experienced hundreds of metres of transient uplift during the latest paleocene regional uplift should cause dissociation of gas hydrates stored in marine sedimentary strata and the subsequent release of carbon to the atmosphere should enhance warming through the greenhouse effect we have developed models of the spatial distribution of uplift to match observational constraints from sedimentary basins fringing the north atlantic in order to provide quantitative estimates of the carbon released upon uplift these models are coupled to a simple parameterisation of carbon storage in sub seafloor gas hydrates results of modelling indicate that large quantities of carbon can be released by uplift with some models generating over 2000 gt of carbon release the possibility that latest paleocene regional uplift occurred over the same time interval as onset of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm around 30 kyr cannot be ruled out using current stratigraphical observations or mantle convection models in this case the uplift mechanism alone can account for the magnitude and timing of the carbon isotope excursion associated with the petm alternatively if the duration of latest paleocene uplift was closer to the upper bound of around 1 myr or if other paleocene uplift events were equally significant then gas hydrate dissociation upon uplift could have contributed to longer term changes in ocean temperature and carbon isotope composition through the late paleocene these temperature changes in combination with development of the north atlantic land bridge during the latest paleocene culmination of uplift may be able to force rapid changes in ocean circulation and cause phenomena such as the petm

on the distribution and separation of crystals in convecting magma abstract fractionation of crystals from magma stands squarely as the central principle of igneous petrology and the critical balance is the competition between crystal settling or rising velocity and magmatic convective velocity a ratio we call s the convective velocity is intimately related to the rate of heat transfer from the system although the theory of sediment distribution in rivers establishes the critical parametric balance and it has been often applied to igneous systems this method turns out to be valid only for small concentrations of crystals and it is not clear if it is accurate for other than turbulent flows where the prandtl number is near unity a generalized theory of particle crystal or bubble behavior is presented scaling of the generalized result shows for the magmatic conditions of small crystallinities small particle reynolds number and newtonian viscosity that the exact distribution of crystals in a convecting magma can be found analytically regardless of the flow field critical retention occurs only for 0 s s 0 for sinking crystals retention is centered in the region of maximum updraft for floating particles retention occurs in regions of downflow which for a simple cellular convective pattern produces a torus shaped retention region against the walls about the midsection of the body for a stack of flattened convective cells which in the crudest sense is analogous to double diffusive convection the zones of retention form depending on the exact flow field either a stack or staggered stack of pillows through the central region crystals settling from top to bottom around this stack take a tortuous path and may exhibit a complex but regular compositional zoning additional effects of fluids possessing a yield strength turbulence particle shape and wall and particle dispersive effects are more qualitatively evaluated for each flow field the amount of retention and the effective settling velocity of all crystals is found as a function of s the critical parameter s controlling retention can be estimated from a parametric representation involving stokes s law and the rayleigh number this shows that some retention probably occurs in all magmas and it increases with approach of the magma to the earth s surface although both crystal settling rate and convection decrease with increasing magmatic viscosity the overall effect is to increase retention decrease s magmas having a viscosity near and beyond about 10 4 poise and chambered in the nearsurface environment should show large degrees of crystal retention retention is however never complete for magmas and the flux of settling crystals leading to differentiation varies as a function of crystallinity this flux or flux probability p f is zero both at the liquidus and the point of maximum packing of crystals which for basalts is about 60 the importance of differentiation is regulated by the amount of time spent in the high crystal flux state and a relative measure of this time is given by the thermal probability p t introduced previously thus the probability of differentiation p d is given by the product p f p t which shows that differentiation must occur over a restricted range of crystallinities from about 20 to 45 for basalts and from about 10 to 30 for rhyolitic magmas the most basic lessons learned here are that the full range of crystallinities is not equally accessible to crystal fractionation and the most fundamental information describing the dynamic state and behavior of magma may well be the distribution of crystal sizes found in lavas

mesozoic rocks from the hebrides shelf and implications for hydrocarbon prospectivity in the northern rockall trough abstract shallow boreholes drilled in the west lewis and west flannan basins outer hebrides shelf have proved rocks of probable latest bajocian bathonian to barremian age where previously a mainly permo triassic infill has been assumed the full geological succession of the basins remains unproved although the permo triassic history of the basins may be similar the rocks encountered suggest that the basins may have dissimilar geological histories during the jurassic and early cretaceous lithologies are mainly fine grained poorly sorted sandstones or organic rich mudstones some correlation can be made with the isle of skye and the west shetland area the sandstones are poor hydrocarbon reservoirs but the middle jurassic and ryazanian mudstones although immature where drilled have excellent oil source rock potential and may have generated large amounts of hydrocarbons if they are present at depth in the adjacent northern rockall trough

petroleum migration faults and overpressure part ii case history the haltenbanken petroleum province offshore norway abstract petroleum inclusion and geochemical data from core extracts were applied to deduce a model for oil migration overpressure development and palaeo leakage of oil from currently dry structures in the haltenbanken vest area the existence of fluorescent oil type inclusions in quartz in the smorbukk asgard 2 field suggest that oil migrated into this structure 70 50 million years before present ma bp this is also the case for the dry structures 6506 12 4 6506 11 3 and 6506 11 1 west of the main smorbukk fault zone black oil inclusions with medium gas oil ratio gor occur in these fields together with condensate type petroleum inclusions this suggests that the dry structures transformed from containing oil to condensate before leakage petroleum extracted from inclusions in these structures and in nearby fields have identical marine type ii kerogen signatures source rocks at the spekk formation level in the current drainage area of smorbukk and these dry structures were immature 70 50 ma bp and the smorbukk sor asgard 3 field did not fill at this early time thus oil must initially have entered into smorbukk from areas to the w sw through the currently pressure sealing smorbukk fault zone which today marks the westward limit of the smorbukk field diagenesis in this fault zone caused the much later overpressure development and petroleum was lost from the 6506 12 4 6506 11 3 and 6506 11 1 structures as overpressure built up regionally petroleum loss from these structures with their often thick seals must have occurred via self propagating open fracture induced mechanisms lack of petroleum in the cretaceous strata above these structures suggests that leakage occurred to even shallower strata this could imply that the cretaceous strata in halten vest were overpressured at the time of leakage in contrast the oil in the cretaceous lysing and lange formation above the jurassic reservoirs in smorbukk and smorbukk sor most likely originated based on geochemistry and gors from the jurassic reservoirs below and not from cretaceous strata this migration event would have been facilitated if it occurred before these sands became overpressured as they are today modelling suggests that the spekk formation became mature in the smorbukk sor region

40ar 39ar dating of oil generation and migration at complex continental margins oil bearing fluid inclusions trapped within authigenic k feldspar in late jurassic reservoirs throughout the uk atlantic margin are evidence for an early oil migration event from late jurassic source rocks in the faeroe shetland basin previous compound specific isotope studies confirm the hydrocarbon provenance temperature composition time data show that the late jurassic source rocks were oil mature 113 3 5 ma 2 this new 40ar 39ar authigenic k feldspar age shows that the late jurassic source rocks were oil mature 30 40 m y prior to current estimates

source rock maturation owing to igneous intrusion in rifted margin petroleum systems intrusive and extrusive volcanism is a common feature associated with many sedimentary basins formed along rifted margins as a result igneous intrusions are often found in potential hydrocarbon producing source rock horizons although direct thermal effects on source rocks have been studied in detail few studies have dealt with understanding the thermal effects on source rocks across a range of different thermal histories prior to intrusion the metamorphic aureoles of three intrusions have been characterized for source rock maturation using organic geochemistry and raman spectroscopy results show that a unique combination of organic geochemical and raman spectroscopic techniques adds further insight to intrusion and host rock interactions with an effective oil window and extended gas window located in the aureole of an immature and mature source rock respectively such varied and potentially beneficial geochemical responses further the need to re evaluate source rock intervals in rifted margin basins

emplacement and cooling of komatiite lavas we propose that komatiite lavas were emplaced as turbulent flows accompanied by vigorous forced convection with cooling rates often in excess of hundreds of c h 1 they melted and assimilated up to 10 of the ground over which they flowed forming deep channels nickel sulphide mineralization may have resulted from incorporation of sulphur rich sediment after emplacement high cooling rates persisted resulting in spinifex textures due to compositional convection

the intrusion of fluid mechanics into geology during the last few years a number of fluid dynamicists often in collaboration with geologists have been investigating problems suggested by geology and creating the new field of geological fluid mechanics the research has uncovered many new fluid mechanical phenomena and the studies have ranged widely over theoretical contributions laboratory experiments and confirmatory field observations this paper presents an overview of part of the field with a strong emphasis on the novel fluid mechanical concepts the presentation includes discussion of some of the effects of cooling and crystallization and the resulting convective motions the flow of gravity currents at both high and low reynolds number and the erosion of solid retaining walls by hot turbulent flows

petroleum geochemistry of the lower and middle jurassic in atlantic margin basins of ireland and the uk potential hydrocarbon source rocks of lower and middle jurassic age have been reported from outcrop shallow boreholes and exploration wells in atlantic margin basins of the uk hebrides west of shetlands and flanking the ne rockall trough and recently in the continuation of this trend offshore ireland slyne erris and porcupine basins previously these organic rich mudrocks were considered to be of little economic importance due largely to their perceived limited areal distribution and low maturity however recent geochemical studies of oils and shales from exploration drilling of these basins shows the lower and middle jurassic to have considerable potential as effective hydrocarbon source rocks supplanting the late jurassic early cretaceous kimmeridge clay formation equivalents as the only viable oil source rock in the region flanking the atlantic margin in the irish and uk sectors rich oil source potential occurs in two transgressive mudrock cycles of lower jurassic age these are the sinemurian pliensbachian interval and the overlying toarcian section present in basins such as the solan minch hebrides slyne north celtic sea st george s channel and central english channel the middle jurassic source rocks have a more limited areal distribution and occur in the faroe shetland solan west lewis west flannan hebrides slyne and north porcupine basins with oil source potential in regressive marginal marine to lacustrine facies mudrocks geochemical studies were undertaken on mudrocks from the lower and middle jurassic sections in atlantic margin basins outcrop shallow borehole core and exploration well cores and cuttings samples and on oils from drill stem test and shows core and cuttings extracts detailed analyses using gc gc ms and carbon isotopes allowed both characterization of the source rocks and oil to source correlation biomarker and carbon isotope studies of oils from the faroe shetland basin foinaven and schiehallion fields the porcupine basin connemara accumulation the wessex basin wytch farm and kimmeridge oil fields and wells in the slyne basin show strong correlations to the various source rock developments in the lower and middle jurassic the mixed biodegraded foinaven and schiehallion oils have a major waxy component and correlate with lacustrine middle jurassic source rocks in the solan and west lewis west flannan basins middle jurassic sourcing of the connemara oils is also suggested while oils in the slyne basin appear to have been largely sourced by the lower jurassic pabba shale formation oils in the wessex basin wytch farm and kimmeridge appear to have been sourced by hettangian sinemurian mudrocks and those in the north celtic sea basin by toarcian source rocks the results from this study in combination with previously published data show that rich effective oil prone source rocks occur in both the lower and middle jurassic of the atlantic margin basins offshore ireland and the uk these source rocks can be correlated with indigenous oils indicating the existence of a previously under evaluated petroleum system

application of pyrolysate carbon isotope and biomarker technology to organofacies definition and oil correlation problems in north sea basins abstract detailed sampling of apparently homogeneous potential source rock intervals frequently indicates unsuspected variations in organic facies which may or may not be reflected in the wireline logs carbon isotope analyses of pyrolysates provide a useful technique in these investigations which are essential for valid oil to source correlations in the jurassic of a north sea viking graben well the rich source shales at the top of the draupne formation are significantly depleted in 13 c and correlate with the oils from this area thus suggesting that this interval has acted as the primary source of the viking graben crudes a quite different pattern is evident in a well from the central graben and the data not only explain why the oils of the greater ekofisk area are relatively enriched in 13 c but also demonstrate that the variations within these oils are facies controlled pyrolysate carbon isotopes provide an excellent correlation between the middle devonian upper caithness flagstones of the inner moray firth and the beatrice crude oil this correlation is supported by the biomarker data and there is no need to appeal to a contribution from either an upper or middle jurassic source to achieve a match with the beatrice oil

novel side chain methylated and hexacyclic hopanes identification by synthesis distribution in a worldwide set of coals and crude oils and use as markers for oxic depositional environments abstract novel side chain methylated and hexacyclic hopanes have been identified in coals and oils from around the world extended hopanes c 32 with an additional methyl in the side chain isohopanes were identified by comparison with synthetic standards the major c 33 c 35 isohopanes are 31 methylbishomohopanes 32 methyltrishomohopanes and 33 methyltetrakishomohopanes extended hopanes methylated at c 29 were not detected the 17 h 21 h 31 methyltrishomohopanes show four peaks on gas chromatography because of the extra asymmetric carbon at c 31 like regular hopanes the isohopanes extend beyond c 35 low concentrations of novel hexacyclic hopanes having 35 or more carbons were also detected in oils and coal extracts the c 35 hexacyclic hopanes were identified as 29 cyclopentylhopanes isohopanes are released from the kerogen by hydrous pyrolysis and hydropyrolysis the 22s 22s 22r ratio for 31 methylbishomohopanes and other isohopanes is around 0 60 at equilibrium in geological samples they isomerize slightly more slowly than regular c 33 hopanes isohop 17 21 enes 2 methylisohopanes and two series of rearranged isohopanes were tentatively identified isohopanes can be biodegraded to form the corresponding 25 norhopanes when 25 norhopanes are not formed the isohopanes are much more resistant to biodegradation than regular hopanes in biodegraded oil seeps from greece 30 norisohopanes were tentatively assigned the composition and relative abundance of c 33 and c 34 isohopanes in a worldwide set of coals and crude oils was determined isohopanes are abundant in coal and coal generated oils where they can account for more than 5 of all extended hopanes and low in abundance in oils from source rocks deposited under anoxic conditions

basin structure and prospectivity of the ne atlantic volcanic rifted margin cross border examples from the faroe shetland more and southern voring basins interpreted horizons within the atlantic margins am area and borehole synthetic seismogram for the tulipan 6302 6 1 borehole compared to the ams fast track processed seismic data

laboratory investigations of viscous effects in replenished magma chambers abstract some laboratory experiments are described which investigate the dynamical effects of replenishment of a magma chamber containing high viscosity magma by hotter denser and much more fluid magma in the experiments a layer of hot kno3 solution is emplaced beneath cold glycerine which has a viscosity 3000 times greater less dense fluid is released immediately and continuously from the interface as a result of crystallization in the lower layer and rises as plumes through the overlying glycerine further crystallization occurs in the plumes and the crystals fall out but there is little mixing between the two fluids and a layer of depleted kno3 solution forms at the top the experiments demonstrate that interfacial processes begin to dominate where there are large viscosity differences between adjacent fluid layers as would be the case in a rhyolitic magma chamber replenished by basaltic magma

flow and instability of a viscous current down a slope if viscous fluid is released on a horizontal surface it rapidly takes up a circular plan form as it spreads this form is observed1 2 to be stable to any small disturbances which are initiated on the front due for example to irregularities in the horizontal surface or to chance perturbations alternatively if some fluid is released onto a sloping surface for example some liquid detergent on a slanted plate a quite different plan form occurs one two or more extended regions of fluid develop downslope as shown in fig 1a b a situation intermediate between these two is now discussed consider a broad band of viscous fluid uniform in depth across a slope released so as to flow down a constant slope by following the motion which is initially independent of the cross slope coordinate the speed of advance and the depth of the flow before it breaks up into a series of waves of ever increasing amplitude can be determined i present an expression for the wavelength of the front which is determined by surface tension and is independent of the coefficient of viscosity

fluid dynamic and geochemical evolution of cyclic unit 10 rhum eastern layered series lithological major element trace element and sr isotope data from cyclic unit 10 of the rhum eastern layered series are presented the lower 65 metres of the unit are peridotite subdivided on textural and geochemical grounds into a lower homogeneous portion approximately 50 metres thick and an upper heterogeneous portion approximately 15 metres thick the uppermost 16 5 metres of the unit are allivalite there are steep geochemical gradients across the peridotite allivalite boundary in ni content of olivine and whole rock sr isotope composition calculations are presented on the geochemical evolution of a rhum picritic liquid undergoing olivine precipitation both when the olivines remain suspended in the residual liquid as they precipitate and when they are continuously fractionated quenched groundmass and olivine compositions from the rhum dykes and the unit 10 peridotite olivines show good agreement with the suspension model but are inconsistent with the fractionation model the rhum chamber is thought to have been replenished with a picritic liquid from which olivine crystallized while held in suspension however replenishment by a highly olivine phyric basalt is also possible the peridotite probably accumulated rapidly as olivines were dumped out of suspension onto the chamber floor the lower part of the peridotite is a poikilitic adcumulate it is suggested that this formed by convective circulation of melt in the pores of the pile of cumulus olivines in the latter stages of adcumulus growth more fe rich and isotopically contaminated magma entered the top of the cumulus pile causing cumulus olivines to re equilibrate and giving the intercumulus plagioclase a higher sr isotope ratio than lower down the olivines in the allivalite show steep stratigraphic gradients in major element composition but not in their ni content they also show substantial variation in major element composition laterally within the allivalite it is suggested that these features are a consequence of postcumulus re equilibration of olivine with migrating intercumulus magma

replenished magma chambers effects of compositional zonation and input rates several recent publications have reported investigations of the dynamical effects and geological consequences of the replenishment of a homogeneous magma chamber by the rapidinjection of hot relatively dense fresh magma the new magmaforms a separate layer at the base of the chamber whereit cools and crystallizes until the density of the residual liquid in the lower layer becomes equal to that of the upperlayer at which time the fluid in the two layers becomes intimately mixed the fluid dynamical aspects of this modelwere confirmed by laboratory experiments using aqueous solutions this paper reports three experimental variations on the basic theme which examine the effects of the rate of injection into homogeneous and compositionally stratified chambers first the rapid injection of a hot dense layer beneath a fluid with a lower temperature and a vertical compositional gradient is considered a series of layers gradually builds up from the base of the upper gradient region while the lower layer cools crystallizes and finally overturns in this situation however the rise of the lower layer fluid is restrained by the density gradient and mixing takes place with only part of the upper fluid second the slow influx of a hot dense liquid beneath a cold less dense homogeneous layer is considered a considerable quantity of the input fluid coolsand crystallizes immediately releasing some lighter fluid to mix with the fluid in the homogeneous layer with time some dense input fluid spreads along the bottom so that locally the situation is the same as the one considered in the previous studies with a local overturning occurring when the density of the lower fluid has decreased sufficiently the deposition of crystals continues and some rather fine chimney like structures can develop which bear a resemblance to the black smokers recently discovered on the sea floor third a combination of the first two variations is studied by the consideration of the slow influx of hot dense liquid beneath a uniformly cooler fluid with a vertical compositional gradient the input fluid is constrained in its rise by the density gradient as the influx continues the additional thermal energy is also confined and causes the crystals to redissolve and build up a lower layer as was observed in the case of a rapid injection beneath a compositional gradient

hydrocarbon traces in the tertiary basalts of the faeroe islands abstract hydrocarbons in the form of gases oils and waxes have been observed in the basalts of the faeroe islands in the north atlantic gases and traces of oil were observed in the outflowing water of the deep lopra 1 well drilled in 1981 the hydrocarbon gas was fairly dry with stable isotopic ratios of 13c1 3 41 4 32 4 26 5 respectively typical of a thermogenic gas high temperature gas chromatography of the oil showed that it consisted mostly of c13 60 n alkanes biomarker distribution observed by gc ms indicates that the oil was derived from a mature source rock deposited in an anoxic environment this suggests that the source rock must lie beneath the known basalts waxes exhibiting bright yellow fluorescence under uv light were observed as coatings on zeolite minerals widely distributed on the faeroe islands the waxes consist predominantly of higher n alkanes shown by htgc the fluorescence indicates the presence of aromatic compounds biomarker distribution indicated that the waxes were derived at least in part from a source rock containing some terrestrial organic matter astestified by the low amounts of oleanane present the waxes were probably deposited from traces of oil present in deeply circulating waters in fractures within the basalts coals which had been suspected to generate some of the hydrocarbons observed in the faeroese basalts were also examined vitrinite values of ro 0 5 as well as gc ms analyses of the suduroy coal extracts showed that these coals are immature and have not generated significant hydrocarbons

the geology of the uk hatton rockall margin abstract seismic potential field sea bed sample and shallow drilling data have been used to investigate the geology of the uk part of the rockall plateau most of the rockall plateau is underlain by early proterozoic rockall bank islay terrane metamorphic basement although george bligh bank and the north eastern end of hatton bank may be underlain at depth by lewisian rocks the basement crops out on rockall bank but occurs at a much deeper level beneath hatton bank and hatton basin the widespread palaeogene lavas of rockall plateau have been sourced from large central igneous complexes rockall swithin sandastre mammal lyonesse and sandarro local volcanoes and fissures some of the lavas may also have been derived from the incipient rift axis west of hatton bank at the time of continental break up differences in seismic facies allow the extent of the lavas from the large centres to be mapped where the lavas are absent beneath parts of hatton bank either due to non emplacement or subsequent erosion during the cenozoic seismic data image the underlying mesozoic and older rocks here bgs boreholes 99 1 and 99 2a have proved mid cretaceous albian shales and sandstones respectively beneath a thin cenozoic cover the mesozoic and older rocks appear to be quite extensive and are folded and faulted mesozoic strata are not observed on rockall bank in uk waters the post lava cenozoic succession of rockall plateau can be sub divided into three megasequences separated by two unconformities which by analogy with rockall basin have been designated c30 intra late eocene and c10 intra early pliocene the ages can be corroborated by dsdp odp boreholes in the hatton basin the cenozoic succession contains eocene prograding fan sequences contourite deposits on the flanks of the banks and shallow faulting some of which affects the present day sea bed structurally rockall high appears mainly as a large basement block whereas hatton high is more complex exhibiting half grabens inversion structures and reverse fault geometries due to cenozoic tectonism the northern end of hatton high is a large anticline with its axis aligned ene wsw the structural differences between the highs may be due to their locations with rockall high exhibiting fewer tectonic effects due to its more landward intraplate setting further away from plate margin deformation

on lava dome growth with application to the 1979 lava extrusion of the soufriere of st vincent abstract a theoretical analysis is presented for the spread of a viscous liquid flowing under its own hydrostatic pressure on a horizontal surface in order to model lava dome formation two situations are considered in detail the spreading of a constant volume of liquid and the case where the amount of liquid is continually increased experiments with silicone liquids show close agreement with theory the formation of a basaltic andesite lava extrusion in 1979 on the crater floor of the soufriere of st vincent west indies provided the motivation for and an application of the model the extrusion reached a diameter of 868 m and a height of 133 m over a period of 150 days over the first 90 days the growth relationships were consistent with those predicted by theory application of the theory to the soufriere dome suggests an effective viscosity of 2 x 10 12 poise for the basaltic andesite lava the large effective viscosity calculated for the lava may be attributed to the dominant influence of a high viscosity skin which forms at the margins of the flow as it cools after 70 days the rate of growth of the extrusion markedly decreased because a substantial collar of rubble accumulated at the flow front due to this collar the growth of the extrusion ceased after 150 days from approximately two weeks after the initiation of the extrusion the discharge rate of lava decreased approximately linearly with increasing dome height this observation suggests that the lava ascended under a decreasing hydrostatic driving pressure and that extrusion ceased when the lava column reached hydrostatic equilibrium

effects of volatiles on mixing in calc alkaline magma systems the intimate mixing between different magmas of disparate densities characteristic of some calc alkaline magma systems is explained by a new mechanism involving the emplacement of a layer of wet undersaturated mafic magma at the base of a magma chamber containing more differentiated magma turbulent transfer of heat between the mafic magma and the overlying magma leads to crystallization and exsolution of volatiles in the lower layer for an initial water content of a few per cent the bulk density of the mafic magma can become equal to that of the overlying magma causing overturning and intimate mixing of the magmas the mechanism is most probable in the low pressure environment of a high level magma chamber

source rock evaluation of middle jurassic coals northeast greenland by artificial maturation aspects of petroleum generation from coal paralic liptinite enriched coals and carbonaceous mudstones in northeast greenland constitute potential highly oil prone source rocks whereas the humic coals may be marginal source rocks the liptinite rich coals are dominated by resinite or fluorescing amorphous organic matter and alginite resulting in hydrogen index hi values generally above 300 and reaching up to 728 during artificial maturation up to 330 degreesc 72 hr the coals follow the maturation paths of kerogen types i and ii on an hi vs tmax diagram and calculations show that upon passage through the oil window roughly 85 of their generation potential is realized activation energy ea distributions with prominent principal ea values centered around 60 62 kcal mole and frequency factors from 5 855 x 1015 s 1 to 3 249 x 1016 s 1 strongly influence the generation characteristics from 300 to 330 degreesc 72 hr artificial maturation important changes include marked loss of liptinite fluorescence and increase in resinite reflectance small change in tmax significant decrease in hi pronounced increase in extract yields increased generation of saturates and generation of labile bitumen with low ea values these observations indicate significant bitumen petroleum formation from the coals during a relatively narrow temperature range which together with the petrographic composition may facilitate expulsion of a waxy crude oil the coals demonstrate that under certain depositional conditions highly prolific coal source rocks can form with the capacity not only to generate but also to expel liquid petroleum begin page 234

effects of source thermal maturity and biodegradation on the distribution and isomerization of homohopanes in petroleum abstract the distributions of c31 c35 17 21 h homohopanes in marine petroleums can be used to describe redox conditions in the source rock depositional environment for example high c35 homohopane indices c35 c31 c35 are typical of petroleums generated from source rocks deposited under anoxic marine conditions where the c35 backbone of the precursor bacteriohopanetetrol is preferentially preserved homohopane distributions have been used to distinguish petroleums from different organic facies of the same source rock homohopane distributions are altered by secondary processes for example the c35 homohopane index decreases with increasing api gravity and thermal maturity of related oils from the monterey formation offshore california similar decreases in the homohopane index are observed for expelled oils from monterey source rock during hydrous pyrolysis biodegradation can result in selective loss of high or low molecular weight homologs apparently depending on the bacterial population in the reservoir bacterial demethylation of homohopanes appears necessary to explain 25 norhopanes in at least one biodegraded oil hydrous pyrolysis studies of the phosphatic and siliceous members in the monterey formation show that identical heating conditions result in different homohopane c 22 epimer ratios furthermore a reversal in the trend of the epimer ratio at high experimental temperatures is observed for the phosphatic but not for the siliceous lithology this could be caused by the combined effects of isomerization and differential thermal destruction of epimers at high temperatures possibly mediated by rock mineralogy