The Australian-Antarctic segment of Gondwana

Australia is one of the major continental terranes in Gondwana’s structure. At the same time, the precise position of Australia in this structure has not yet been clearly identified. According to different works, Australia is connected to Antarctica in a number of areas near Wilkes Land, Adelie Land, and Victoria Land. The comprehensive analysis of the geological and geophysical data allows us to reconstruct the optimal relative position of the continents and to reach a conclusion about the propagation of the tectonic structures of Australia towards Antarctica.     

Three-phase measurements of oil and gas trapping in sand packs

We measure the trapped saturations of oil and gas as a function of initial saturation in water-wet sand packs. We start with a water-saturated column and inject octane (oil), while water and oil are produced from the bottom. Once water production has ceased, air (gas) then enters from the top, allowing oil and gas to drain under gravity for different times. Finally water is then injected from the bottom to trap both oil and gas. The columns are sliced and the fluids analyzed using gas chromatography. We find that for high initial gas saturations more gas can be trapped in the presence of oil than in a two-phase (gas/water) system. The residual gas saturation can be over 20% compared to 14% in two-phase flow [Al Mansoori SK, Iglauer S, Pentland CH, Bijeljic B, Blunt MJ. Measurements of non-wetting phase trapping applied to carbon dioxide storage. Energy Procedia 2009;1(1):3173–80]. This is unlike previous measurements on consolidated media, where the trapped gas saturation is either similar or lower to that reached in an equivalent two-phase experiment. For lower initial gas saturation, the amount of trapping follows the initial-residual trend seen in two-phase experiments. The amount of oil trapped is insensitive to initial gas saturation or the amount of gas that is trapped, again in contrast to measurements on consolidated media. More oil is trapped than would be predicted from an equivalent two-phase (oil/water) system, although the trapped saturation is never larger than the maximum reached in two-phase flow (around 11%) [Pentland CH, Al Mansoori SK, Iglauer S, Bijeljic B, Blunt MJ. Measurement of non-wetting phase trapping in sand packs. In: SPE 115697, proceedings of the SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, Denver, Colorado, USA; 21–24 September 2008]. These initially surprising results are explained in the context of oil layer stability and the competition between snap-off and piston-like advance. In two-phase systems, displacement is principally by cooperative piston-like advance with relatively little trapping, whereas in consolidated media snap-off is generally more significant. However, oil layer collapse events during three-phase waterflooding rapidly trap the oil which acts as a barrier to direct water/gas displacement, except by snap-off, leading to enhanced gas trapping.     

Integrating basin modeling with seismic technology and rock physics

We explore the link between basin modelling and seismic inversion by applying different rock physics models. This study uses the E‐Dragon II data in the Gulf of Mexico. To investigate the impact of different rock physics models on the link between basin modelling and seismic inversion, we first model relationships between seismic velocities and both (1) porosity and (2) effective stress for well‐log data using published rock physics models. Then, we build 1D basin models to predict seismic velocities derived from basin modelling with different rock physics models, in a comparison with average sonic velocities measured in the wells. Finally, we examine how basin modelling outputs can be used to aid seismic inversion by providing constraints for the background low‐frequency model. For this, we run different scenarios of inverting near angle partial stack seismic data into elastic impedances to test the impact of the background model on the quality of the inversion results. The results of the study suggest that the link between basin modelling and seismic technology is a two‐way interaction in terms of potential applications, and the key to refine it is establishing a rock physics models that properly describes changes in seismic signatures reflecting changes in rock properties.     

Laboratory soil piping and internal erosion experiments: evaluation of a soil piping model for low‐compacted soils

Mechanistic models have been proposed for soil piping and internal erosion on well‐compacted levees and dams, but limited research has evaluated these models in less compacted (more erodible) soils typical of hillslopes and streambanks. This study utilized a soil box (50 cm long, 50 cm wide and 20 cm tall) to conduct constant‐head, soil pipe and internal erosion experiments for two soils (clay loam from Dry Creek and sandy loam from Cow Creek streambanks) packed at uniform bulk densities. Initial gravimetric moisture contents prior to packing were 10, 12 and 14% for Dry Creek soil and 8, 12, and 14% for Cow Creek soil. A 1‐cm diameter rod was placed horizontally along the length of the soil bed during packing and carefully removed after packing to create a continuous soil pipe. A constant head was maintained at the inflow end. Flow rates and sediment concentrations were measured from the pipe outlet. Replicate submerged jet erosion tests (JETs) were conducted to derive erodibility parameters for repacked samples at the same moisture contents. Flow rates from the box experiments were used to calibrate the mechanistic model. The influence of the initial moisture content was apparent, with some pipes (8% moisture content) expanding so fast that limited data was collected. The mechanistic model was able to estimate equivalent flow rates to those observed in the experiments, but had difficulty matching observed sediment concentrations when the pipes rapidly expanded. The JETs predicted similar erodibility coefficients compared to the mechanistic model for the more erodible cases but not for the less erodible cases (14% moisture content). Improved models are needed that better define the changing soil pipe cross‐section during supply‐ and transport‐limited internal erosion, especially for piping through lower compacted (more erodible) soils as opposed to more well‐compacted soils resulting from constructing levees and dams. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A spectrophotometric study of aqueous Au(III) halide-hydroxide complexes at 25-80 °C

The mobility and transport of gold in low-temperature waters and brines is affected by the aqueous speciation of gold, which is sensitive in particular to pH, oxidation and halide concentrations. In this study, we use UV-Vis spectrophotometry to identify and measure the thermodynamic properties of Au(III) aqueous complexes with chloride, bromide and hydroxide. Au(III) forms stable square planar complexes with hydroxide and halide ligands. Based on systematic changes in the absorption spectra of solutions in three binary systems NaCl-NaBr, NaCl-NaOH and NaBr-NaOH at 25 °C, we derived log dissociation constants for the following mixed and end-member halide and hydroxide complexes: [AuCl₃Br]⁻, [AuCl₂Br₂]⁻, [AuBr₃Cl]⁻ and [AuBr₄]⁻; [AuCl₃(OH)]⁻, [AuCl₂(OH)₂]⁻, [AuCl(OH)₃]⁻ and [Au(OH)₄]⁻; and [AuBr₃(OH)]⁻, [AuBr₂(OH)₂]⁻ and [AuBr(OH)₃]⁻. These are the first reported results for the mixed chloride-bromide complexes. Increasing temperature to 80 °C resulted in an increase in the stability of the mixed chloride-bromide complexes, relative to the end-member chloride and bromide complexes. For the [AuCl_(4−n)(OH)_n]⁻ series of complexes (n = 0-4), there is an excellent agreement between our spectrophotometric results and previous electrochemical results of Chateau et al. [Chateau et al. (1966)]. In other experiments, the iodide ion (I⁻) was found to be unstable in the presence of Au(III), oxidizing rapidly to I₂(g) and causing Au to precipitate. Predicted Au(III) speciation indicates that Au(III) chloride-bromide complexes can be important in transporting gold in brines with high bromide-chloride ratios (e.g., >0.05), under oxidizing (atmospheric), acidic (pH < 5) conditions. Native gold solubility under atmospheric oxygen conditions is predicted to increase with decreasing pH in acidic conditions, increasing pH in alkaline conditions, increasing chloride, especially at acid pH, and increasing bromide for bromide/chloride ratios greater than 0.05. The results of our study increase the understanding of gold aqueous geochemistry, with the potential to lead to new methods for mineral exploration, hydrometallurgy and medicine.     

The Albian to Turonian carbon isotope record from the Shilaif Basin (United Arab Emirates) and its regional and intercontinental correlation

The sedimentary record of the Arabian Shelf offers a unique opportunity to study the Cretaceous (Albian–Turonian) greenhouse climate from a palaeoequatorial perspective. In particular, hemipelagic to pelagic carbonate successions from the extensive Shilaif intra‐shelf basin have the potential to produce an excellent record of carbon cycle perturbations during this interval. This study presents a 269 m thick chemostratigraphic (carbonate δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O) record from the Middle Albian to Early Turonian of central Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), representing over 14 Myr of uninterrupted carbonate sedimentation. The Mauddud to Shilaif formations represent outer ramp to basinal intra‐shelf carbonates with variations from laminated organic‐rich to clean bioturbated intervals. Isotopic evidence of the latest Albian Anoxic Event (Oceanic Anoxic Event 1d), Middle Cenomanian Event I and the Cenomanian–Turonian Anoxic Event (Oceanic Anoxic Event 2) are confirmed and biostratigraphically calibrated by means of calcareous nannofossils. The carbon isotope record allows correlation with other regional records and well‐calibrated records across the Tethyan Ocean and represents a significant improvement of the chronostratigraphic framework of the United Arab Emirates (Shilaif) and Oman (Natih) intra‐shelf basins. The study further confirms that low carbon isotope values corresponding to the two source rock intervals in the Shilaif Formation clearly precede the isotopic expressions of Oceanic Anoxic Event 1d and Oceanic Anoxic Event 2.