Modelling generation and dissipation of overpressure in sedimentary basins: an example from the Halten Terrace,offshore Norway

A pressure simulator modelling the dynamic overpressure history in sedimentary basins is developed using a pressure compartment methodology. Simple models for porosity reduction are used for controlling pressure generation, and different empirical models are used to estimate the lateral and vertical sealing/dissipation mechanisms. The equations describing the flow of formation water between the pressure compartments are used to calculate the resulting pressure dissipation on a geological time scale. The methodology is tested and applied to the Jurassic Fangst Group in the Halten Terrace area, offshore Norway. Dynamic allocation and an explicit numerical solution technique ensure a fast and accurate solution of the flow equations. The results suggest: (a) the probable mechanisms and processes that have generated the overpressure, (b) the timing and location of hydraulic fracturing and (c) the nature and behaviour of the overpressure in addition to the overpressure history.     

Delineation of sub-basalt sedimentary basins in hydrocarbon exploration in North Ethiopia

In Northern Ethiopia oil seepage could be traced flowing through fractured basalts at the Mechela river bed near Wereilu town. These rocks make up part of the huge volume of Ethiopia's Oligocene-Miocene Plateau basalts and associated rhyolites that cover most of the central and northern part of the country. They overlie the marine sedimentary formations of Triassic–Cretaceous age and constitute one of the largest visible flood basalts on the face of the earth.2-D and 3-D analyses of the gravity field have been performed to determine the structural pattern and subsurface density distributions beneath the thick volcanic sequences. The resulting images offer significant new insights into the structural pattern and geophysical characterization of the study area. A NW–SE elongated basin of significant dimension has been localized directly beneath the oil seep at Wereilu. The basin is a graben formed within and by the NW–SE trending structures of the Karroo rift system. A younger generation of faults in the NE–SW direction has affected the basin exerting significant control on the geometry and perhaps on the sedimentation pattern that might have played a major role in hydrocarbon accumulation and localization.The nature and thickness of the sub-volcanic sedimentary succession, attaining a significant thickness of more than 5 km, coupled with the overlying thick volcanic sequences providing the necessary thermal gradient for the maturation of the organic material create a favorable condition for the generation and accumulation of hydrocarbon deposit.     

Tectonostratigraphy and sedimentary architecture of rift basins, with reference to the northern North Sea

A tectonostratigraphic model for the evolution of rift basins has been built, involving three distinct stages of basin development separated by key unconformities or unconformity complexes. The architecture and signature of the sediment infill for each stage are discussed, with reference to the northern North Sea palaeorift system. The proto-rift stage describes the rift onset with either doming or flexural subsidence. In the case of early doming, a proto-rift unconformity separates this stage from the subsequent main rift stage. Active stretching and rotation of fault blocks during the rift stage is terminated by the development of the syn-rift unconformity. Where crustal separation is accomplished, a break-up unconformity commonly marks the boundary to the overlying thermal relaxation or post-rift stage. Tabular architectures, thickening across relatively steep faults, characterize the proto-rift stage. Syn-rift architectures are much more variable. Depending on the ability of the sediment supply to fill the waxing and waning accommodation created during rotation and subsidence, one-, two- or three-fold lithosome architectures are likely to develop. During the post-rift stage, an early phase with coarse clastic infilling of remnant rift topography often precedes late stage widening of the basin and filling with fine-grained sediments.     

Genetic aspects of the petroleum resource potential of marine sedimentary basins

The historical-genetic method developed at the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the assessment of the petroleum resource potential is discussed with consideration of its main tasks and the successive procedures in its application. Such studies are crowned by a compilation of separate maps demonstrating scales of oil and gas generation and maps of hydrocarbon genesis zoning of basins with outlining centers of oil and gas generation and defining different-phase hydrocarbon-generation zones. The method was tested in over twenty continental-marginal and intracontinental basins studied to a different extent. The sedimentary basins of the Atlantic continental margin off Africa and the Caspian and Black seas were used as objects for applying the historical-genetic method for assessing their petroleum resource potential.     

Video cathodoluminescence microscopy of diagenetic cements and its applications

Diagenetic studies of sedimentary rocks using cold cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy have been severely limited because of the very low intensity of visible luminescent emissions, which required long photographic exposure times, and because of the difficulty in obtaining quantitative data from CL observations. The solution to this problem is to fit the microscope with a high-sensitivity digital colour video camera linked to a computer with image enhancement and image analysis software. The new technique described in this paper:

• produces digital CL images of consistent high quality, both quickly and cheaply;

• controls the capture and editing of CL images, to reveal detailed textural information even from minerals exhibiting low level luminescence such as quartz;

• acquires quantitative information on pore systems and the abundance of cement zones from CL images.

Examples are presented to demonstrate the high quality of images produced in this way and the range of uses to which the new technique can be applied. The ability to image exactly the same field of view in both plane polarised light and CL is a particular advantage. Image analysis techniques have been developed to give a statistical characterisation of both pore systems and cement phases that infill them. The abundance of contrasting cement zones seen in CL can be measured and the abundance of cement phases can be mapped across a reservoir. The history of porosity occlusion can be reconstructed quantitatively and integrated with burial history and hydrocarbon migration. Porosity can be measured accurately and, since the technique obtains data on pore geometry as well as abundance, the pore system can be characterised by pore size distributions and pseudo-capillary pressure curves. This also opens the possibility of estimating permeability from thin sections.     

冲绳海槽表层沉积硅藻对黑潮流的响应

本文报道了冲绳海槽表层沉积物中优势硅藻种的相对含量、热带远洋种和硅藻组合的分布特征 ,讨论了热带远洋种的相对含量与黑潮流、硅藻组合的分布与物质来源的关系等问题 .结果表明 ,热带远洋种的相对含量 >2 0 %的界线与黑潮流的边界基本上一致 ;优势硅藻种和硅藻组合的分布留下了与物质来源的关系较为密切的记录 .     

Mapping the sedimentary basins of the Barents and Kara Seas using ERS-1 altimetry-geodetic mission

The continental shelf in the Arctic north of Russia consists of a series of epicontinental seas, which are the offshore continuation of potentially oil and gas basins on land. The geology of all these epicontinental seas is poorly known, due to the remoteness, the extreme climatic conditions and the extensive costs associated with seismic exploration. Radar altimeter sensors thus provide an invaluable tool for studying the geological structures off the coast. The unique ERS-1 contribution comes from its high latitude coverage (81.5 deg south to north), and the space and time density of its measurements (168-day repeat-orbit).The gravity anomaly field is derived from the geoid height measurements by computing the deflections of the vertical in the north-south and east-west directions and transforming these deflections into gravity anomalies. The gravimetry reveals interesting features of the basement of the Barents and Kara Seas which have not been chartered in recent, previous compilation maps of sedimentary thickness in the Arctic Ocean (Jackson and Oakey, 1988; Gramberg and Puscharovski, 1989). We obtain no indication of the SE-NW offshore Baikalian trend described by Fichler et al (1997) using ERS-1 gravimetry. Instead, the data indicate the presence of a north-south trending gravity high associated with the maximum sediment thickness within the South Barents Sea and the North Barents Sea Basins. Further geological studies are needed to interpret the gravimetric data, which directly addresses the problem of understanding the gravity signature of deep, old, sedimentary basins.     

陆相断陷盆地沉积可容空间变化与油气汇聚体系关系探讨

陆相断陷盆地的沉积可容空间变化规律控制着盆地的层序地层充填样式和生储盖发育规律,根据目前我国陆相断陷盆地的层序地层响应特征,将沉积可容空间的变化频率分为低频和高频两种类型。油气汇聚体系是陆相断陷盆地油气勘探的研究对象,根据油气聚集规模将其划分为大型、中型和小型等三种规模类型。具备不同层序地层充填样式的陆相断陷盆地一般发育不同规模类型的油气汇聚体系和相应的空间展布规律：低频率沉积可容空间变化的陆相断陷盆地可以发育大型、中型规模的油气汇聚体系;高频率沉积可容空间变化的陆相断陷盆地一般发育中型或者小型规模的油气汇聚体系,大型规模的油气汇聚体系欠发育。我国陆区陆相断陷盆地中的东营凹陷是低频率沉积可容空间变化的典型代表,东濮凹陷是高频率沉积可容变化的典型代表;海区陆相断陷盆地中的涠西南凹陷属于低频率可容空间变化的类型,海中凹陷属于较高频率可容空间变化的类型。     

Classification of rifted sedimentary basins of the Pannonian Basin System according to the structural genesis, evolutionary history and hydrocarbon maturation zones

We apply the concept that sedimentary basins can be classified according to their structural genesis and evolutionary history to the Tertiary rifts of the Pannonian Basin of Eastern Europe.We have approached the classification by breaking the basins down into the cycles or stages that they comprise. This approach helps us to understand the basin evolution better and allows us to compare the basins more easily. The drivers that define the cycles of basin history are (1) basin-forming tectonics, (2) sedimentary processes, and (3) basin-modifying tectonics.We link common elements of petroleum systems and plays to these natural cycles or stages in basin evolution to improve the prediction of which plays could be expected to occur in a particular basin or region.This concept is constructed through several steps. These steps are (1) to identify standard evolutionary patterns related to geodynamic drivers, (2) to group the basins with similar tectono-stratigraphic evolution and correlate these with petroleum system development, (3) to relate basin trap types to basin history and (4) to calculate characteristic hydrocarbon maturation zones by thermal modeling.We present an application to the Pannonian Basin System of Eastern Europe, an area formed by Miocene back-arc extension and affected by compressional reactivation during its late-stage evolution. The sub-basins of the Pannonian Basin System appear to have experienced comparable magnitudes of deformation, to have developed similar trap types and to have experienced a characteristic hydrocarbon maturation history in a way that supports play prospectivity.     

Some remarks on the study of subsidence of sedimentary basins Application to the Gulf of Lions margin (Western Mediterranean)

The study of basin subsidence is a helpful geological tool for understanding the tectonic and thermal evolution of sedimentary basins. Subsidence is clearly one major aspect of the geodynamics of ‘rifted’ basins. It is controlled by the inner lithospheric and crustal processes of mechanical, thermal and also tectonic origin. The load of sediments which fill the initial rift depression amplify these vertical movements, according to the laws of isostatic compensation.The purpose of the backstripping method is to separate these two components of subsidence. The subsidence due to both controlling factors (geodynamics and sediments loading), called total subsidence, can be estimated by a precise reconstruction of paleotopography in the basin during past sedimentation. This geohistorical reconstruction is based on observational data, mainly the chronostratigraphy of the sedimentary cover, lithologies and paleoenvironments, all data being constrained by the global geological context in the basin studied.The tectonic subsidence, which corresponds to the driving lithospheric phenomena, is computed according to a model of the response of lithosphere to sediment loading. Two models are considered, the Airy or local isostasy model and flexure models. In flexure models, the main difficulty is to estimate the history of the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere below continental margins and rifted basins. The influence of compensation models on subsidence history will be discussed.The present paper brings out some remarks on the use of backstripping techniques. In particular, the two-dimensional approach is emphasized because it gives better constraints on the geological validity of the paleotopographic reconstruction and the distribution of subsidence in space and time. Discussion is illustrated by the study of the young passive margin of Gulf of Lions, in the northwestern part of the Mediterranean Basin. The rifting was initiated during upper Oligocene and lasted until Aquitanian time. A seismic survey in the Gulf of Lions and on-shore geological studies of the bordering areas (Sardinia, Camargue) have shown that the postrift history mainly consists of a regional subsidence of the whole margin. The hypothesis of a thermal control of the postrift subsidence, as predicted by geodynamical models (McKenzie, 1978), will be discussed. The geohistorical reconstruction deals with two main problems. (1) Determination of paleobathymetry is not accurate enough from observation data. (2) A strong erosional event, known as the Messinian Event, is superimposed to the geodynamic evolution of the margin. Thus, the complete paleotopographic reconstruction will be based on observations and also geological hypotheses, mainly the likely continuity of the geological phenomena during the postrift history of the margin, since they are controlled by the thermal evolution at depth.     

Echo character of the East Brazilian continental margin and its relationship to sedimentary processes

The nature and regional distributions of various types of bottom echoes recorded on 3.5-kHz echograms from the East Brazilian continental margin (8–30°S) provide valuable information about sedimentary processes which have been active on a regional scale. The ten types of echoes observed fall into two major classes: distinct and indistinct. Indistinct echoes have two sub-classes; prolonged and hyperbolic. A qualitative correlation is observed between three types of distinct and indistinct-prolonged echoes and the relative abundance of coarse, bedded sediment (silt, sand, gravel) in piston cores. Regions returning distinct echoes with continuous parallel sub-bottoms contain little or no coarse sediment; regions returning indistinct very prolonged echoes with no sub-bottoms contain very high concentrations of coarse sediment; and regions returning indistinct semiprolonged echoes with intermittent sub-bottoms contain moderate or intermediate amounts of coarse sediment. Thus the regional distributions of these three echo types reflect the dispersal of coarse terrigenous sediment throughout the region. High concentrations of coarse sediment are restricted to relatively small areas which are generally proximal to large deep-sea channels, whereas very low concentrations occur in distal regions such as the lowermost continental rise and adjacent abyssal plain. Moderate concentrations of coarse sediment occur throughout most of the continental rise. Five of the six types of hyperbolic echoes observed are reflected from erosional/depositional bed forms. Although some of these bed forms (especially on the upper continental rise) have probably been produced by gravity-controlled mass flows (turbidity currents, slumps, etc.) the fact that the most extensive and widespread regions of hyperbolic echoes occur in distal regions beneath the present axis of flow of the Antarctic Bottom Water suggests that most of these bed forms are the result of sediment reworking by the contour-following bottom currents of this water mass.     

冲绳海槽晚第四纪沉积硅藻及其古海洋学意义

本文描述了冲绳海槽辫中KL22＋KL18岩芯的硅藻丰度、优势硅藻种的相对含量、微型硅藻的种类和丰度、热带远洋种的丰度的分布特征,讨论了该岩芯的地层年低、古黑潮流等问题。结果表明晚更新世以黑湖主干未流过研究区;岩芯中硅藻丰度和热带远洋种丰度的突然增加系新仙女木（YD）、海因里奇（H1）等古气候变冷事件留下的记录。     

西太平洋弧后盆地的热液系统及其岩浆环境研究

研究海底热液系统及其岩浆环境,可为了解西太平洋流固界面跨圈层物质与热交换过程,揭示板块俯冲过程的岩浆活动和资源环境效应提供研究支撑。为此,研究了冲绳海槽热液活动的岩浆环境、马努斯海盆的热液柱以及弧后盆地和洋中脊背景下的硫化物与玄武岩的同位素组成,对冲绳海槽热液区附近玄武岩、安山岩、粗安岩、英安岩、流纹岩及其基性岩浆包体进行了岩相学、矿物学以及主量元素、微量元素和同位素组成分析,对马努斯海盆PACMANUS和Desmos热液区的热液柱及海水进行了测量,在海底热液区岩浆混合过程及时间尺度、透视冲绳海槽深部岩浆房及岩浆演化过程和岩浆对热液系统物质贡献研究方面获新进展,揭示了俯冲蛇纹岩对琉球构造带南部岩浆活动的影响,论证了熔体包裹体对弧后盆地岩浆演化的指示,获得了冲绳海槽玄武质岩浆来源新证据,揭示了弧后盆地与洋中脊硫化物和玄武岩中铁、铜、锌的来源及其同位素在硫化物形成和岩浆活动过程中的分馏情况,明确了热液柱的物理、化学空间结构与物质组成特征,以及热液柱的扩散受深度和底流流速的影响,且热液柱扩散过程中溶解铁浓度异常比溶解锰的维持时间更长。未来,发展非传统稳定同位素和挥发份测试技术,进一步了解西太平洋板块俯冲环境下热液活动与岩浆作用的关系,将有助于海底热液系统及其成矿过程研究获得新进展。     

Style and timing of salt tectonics in the Dniepr-Donets Basin (Ukraine): implications for triggering and driving mechanisms of salt movement in sedimentary basins

The Ukrainian Dniepr-Donets Basin (DDB) is a Late Palaeozoic intracratonic rift basin, with sedimentary thicknesses up to 19 km, displaying the effects of salt tectonics during its entire history of formation, from Late Devonian rifting to the Tertiary. Hundreds of concordant and discordant salt structures formed during this time. It is demonstrated in this paper that the variety of styles of salt structure formation in the DDB provide important constraints on understanding the triggering and driving mechanisms of salt kinematics in sedimentary basins in general. Salt movement in the DDB began during the Devonian syn-rift phase of basin development and exerted controls on the later distribution of salt structures though the geometry of basement faults is not directly responsible for the regular spacing of salt structures. Post-rift salt movements in the DDB occurred episodically. Episodes of salt movement were triggered by tectonic events, specifically two extensional events during the Carboniferous, an extensional reactivation at the end of Carboniferous–earliest Permian, and a compressional event at the end of the Cretaceous. Extensional events that induced salt movement were ‘thick-skinned’ (i.e. basement involved in deformation) rather than ‘thin-skinned’. Most overburden deformation related to salt movements is ductile regardless of sedimentary bulk lithology and degree of diagenesis, while the deformation of sedimentary cover in areas where salt is absent is mainly brittle. This implies that the presence of salt changes the predominant mode of deformation of overlying sedimentary rocks. Episodes of salt movement lasted longer than the periods of active tectonics that initiated them. Buoyancy, erosion, and differential loading all played a role in driving halokinesis once tectonic forces had pushed the salt-overburden system into disequilibrium; among these factors, erosion of overburden above growing salt structures acted as a key self-renewing force for development of salt diapirs. Very high sedimentation rates (related to high post-rift tectonic subsidence rates), particularly during the Carboniferous, were able to bury diapirs and to load salt bodies such that buoyancy, erosion, and differential loading forces eventually became insufficient to continue driving diapirism—until the system was perturbed by an ensuing tectonic event. In contrast, some salt anticlines and diapirs developed continuously during the entire Mesozoic because of much-reduced tectonic subsidence rates (and sedimentation supply) during this time. However, a Lower Permian salt series and overhangs of buried diapirs played an important role in preventing overburden piercing (and fracturing) during the Mesozoic and, specifically, during the Late Cretaceous salt diapirism phase.     

台湾海峡西部海域底质柱状样中有孔虫特征及其环境意义

本文通过对台湾海峡西部海域7个柱状样计79块样品中的有孔虫分析,阐述了海峡柱样中有孔虫组合及其特征,并由此讨论台湾海峡西部海域晚更新世以来的沉积环境。     

Evolution of an isolated eddy near a coast and its relevance to the “Kyucho”

The evolution of an isolated meso-scale eddy near a coast is studied numerically. In particular, it is found that the translation speed of the adjusted eddy is estimated well by the mutual induction mechanism adapted to a rotating stratified fluid. The nonlinear Kelvin wave excited during the adjustment process is also discussed in connection with the Kyucho, the sudden warming of coastal waters associated with swift currents.     

闽江口拦门沙砂体的演变及其沉积年代

本文介绍了闽江口拦门沙砂体的~(14)C年代、沉积速率、堆积趋势及其变化,从历史的演变规律推测现代闽江口拦门沙砂体堆积的可能发展趋势,指出航道整治的重点地段。     

福清湾北部及其以东近岸海域沉积环境和沉积特征

本文对福清湾北部及其以东近岸海域的地质地貌，潮流和波浪等沉积环境因素，以及对沉积物和悬浮泥沙的粒度，矿物特征进行研究，认为福清湾为溺谷型的半封闭潮汐汊道海湾存在着较大的潮差和潮流流速，沉积物沿潮流方向呈东粗西细和岸边细、向海变粗的潮流分异特征，潮流控制着沉积物的布局，而属于潮控的浅海沉积环境。     

Morphological response of tidal basins to human interventions

This study focuses on the prediction of the long-term morphological evolution of tidal basins due to human interventions. New analytical results have been derived for an existing model [ASMITA, Aggregated Scale Morphological Interaction between a Tidal inlet and the Adjacent coast; Stive, M.J.F., Capobianco, M., Wang, Z.B., Ruol, P., Buijsman, M.C., 1998. Morphodynamics of a Tidal Lagoon and adjacent Coast. 8th International Biennial Conference on Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas, The Hague, September 1996, 397–407.]. Through linearisation of the model equations a set of time scales is obtained that describe the main features of the morphological evolution of tidal inlets. The magnitude of these system time scales is determined by inlet geometry and sediment exchange processes. The nature and degree of interventions determine which time scales are dominant. We focus on five different tidal inlets in the Wadden Sea. For these inlets, the system time scales have been estimated. The model has been applied to simulate the morphological response of the Marsdiep and Vlie inlets to the closure of the Zuiderzee in 1932. In this way, the model and associated system time scales for each of these inlets have been validated. Results show that in both inlets, the channels display the largest adaptation time. It will take at least a century before the channels and hence the tidal inlet systems reach a new morphological equilibrium.     

莺歌海盆地新生代构造沉积演化及动力学机制分析

南海西北陆缘构造演化极其复杂,受到红河断裂、海南地幔柱和南海形成演化等多种因素的控制。莺歌海盆地位于南海西北部,发育了巨厚的新生代沉积物,详细记录了南海西北陆缘新生代的演化历史。但是莺歌海盆地新生代以来主要受到何种构造因素的控制目前还不太清楚。本文在莺歌海盆地较为均匀地选择了7口钻井和23口模拟井,通过空盆构造沉降方法重建了莺歌海盆地的构造沉降量、构造沉降速率和沉积速率,同时运用重力反演方法模拟了莺歌海盆地深部地壳结构,并结合前人研究成果进行了综合分析。结果发现莺歌海盆地在裂陷期（45～23 Ma BP）,盆地北部和中部沉降速率较大,南部沉降速率较小;在裂后期（23～0 Ma BP）, 盆地北部和中部沉降速率存在两期“台阶式”上升,分别为23～11.7 Ma BP和11.7 Ma BP至今,北部裂后期构造沉降速率最大可达80 m/Ma,中部最大可达110 m/Ma;南部地堑和隆起裂后期分别在11.7～5.7 Ma BP和15.9～11.7 Ma BP构造沉降速率最大可达70 m/Ma。莺歌海盆地新生代整体上表现为沉降速率与沉积速率变化基本一致,说明构造沉降对沉积速率具有显著的控制作用。重力反演发现莺歌海盆地可能存在下地壳高密度异常体,结合盆地沉积物内部钻遇玄武岩,我们推测下地壳高密度异常体为基性侵入体。通过与南海周边其他沉积盆地沉降速率对比发现,几乎所有盆地都在中中新世−晚中新世（15.9～11.7 Ma BP）发生了加速沉降事件,我们认为这可能跟南海海盆停止扩张导致大陆边缘次生地幔对流消失有关。莺歌海盆地5.7 Ma BP至今的加速沉降则可能与红河断裂右旋走滑活动有关。