Organic Petrological Studies on Immature Source Rocks

Organic petrology is a marginal science that is quite practicable. At present, it has developed into a routine research tool that is widely applied in petroleum exploration and assessment. Based on several years‘ research of the authors, this paper presents the advances in organic petrological studies on immature source rocks, including the classification and characteristics of macerals, the composition of macerals and types of organic matter, the abundance and evolution of organic matter, oil-prone macerals, hydrocarbon generation and expulsion. All these results show that organic petrology is of considerable value pertaining to its application in the assessment of immature oil and gas. The immature source rocks consist of various macerals with obvious heterogeneity, contain different hydrocarbon-generating macerals with different oil thresholds and oil peaks, and show a two-staged evolutionary pattern of organic matter.     

Migration Fractionation of Neutral Nitrogen Compounds of Crude Oils from Tabei Oilfield in the Tarim Basin, China

The absolute amounts and relative distributions of neutral nitrogen compounds in the Tabei oilfield (e. G. Blocks Ln1-Ln1 1) showed remarkable migration fractionation in the vertical direction. From Ordovician reservoirs (O) to oil legs TⅢ and T Ⅰ of Triassic reservoirs in blocks LN1-LN11, the concentrations of [a] [c] decreased from 1. 59μg/g, 0.49μg/g to 0.17 μg/g (oil). The ratios of various alkylcarbazole isomers, such as 1,8-dimethylcarbazole/nitrogenpartially shielded isomers and 1,8-dimethylcarbazole/nitrogen-exposed isomers, were adopted as the indicators of petroleum migration. The ratios increased from 0.13, 0.20 to 0.67 and from going from the south to the north of the Tabei oilfield, the absolute concentrations of neutral nitrogen compounds decreased drastically, and the nitrogen-shielded isomers were enriched relative to nitrogen-exposed isomers and nitrogen-partially shielded isomers. Crude oils in the Tabei oilfield migrated laterally from the Jilake structure to the Sangtamu fault uplift and Lunnan fault uplift, and crude oils in the same fault uplift migrated and remigrated vertically from Ordovician reservoirs, to oil legs TⅢ to TⅠ of Triassic reservoirs.     

Composition of Kerogen in Kupferschiefer from Southwest Poland

Thirty-seven Kupferschiefer samples from southwestern Poland were analyzed by microscopy, Rock-Eval approach and instrumental neutron activation analysis to understand the geochemical and morphological characteristics of kerogen present in the samples. The analytical results indicate that there are two different types of kerogens. One type was only subjected to thermal alteration processes, and the other was further oxidized after deposition of the sediment.In the oxidized samples migrabitumen was transformed into pyrobitumen. Rock-Eval analyses show a significant decrease in HI values in the oxidized samples and an increase in OI values in relation to the samples that were not influenced by oxidation. Variations in S2 versus Corg contents indicate a change in kerogen from Type II to Type III with progressing oxidation. The presence of pyrobitumen and the depletion of hydrogen in the altered kerogen allow one to conclude that the kerogen was used as hydrogen donor for thermochemical sulfate reduction(TSR).     

Isotopic Characteristics and Key Factors Favoring the Formation of Fuwan Super-large Silver Deposit in Guangdong Province

Rb-Sr isochron age of fluid inclusions in quartz from the Fuwan super-large silver deposit is 68 - 6 Ma, the silver deposit is characterized by high μ values (10.67 - 10.95 ), which are much higher than those of the ore-hosted Paleozoic strata and are close to those of ores hosted in the Proterozoic metamorphic basement in western Guangdong Province. Based on the Pb isotopic characteristics, coupled with much high background silver contents (200-1000ng/g) in the Proterozoic basement and relatively low silver contents in the Paleozoic strata in the region of the Sanshui Basin, it is concluded that the ore-forming material of the super-large silver deposit came mainly from the old basement. The super-large silver deposit related genetically to the intense volcanic activities during the Upper Cretaceous to Eogene. The formation of the Fuwan super-large silver deposit is controlled by the following favorable geological conditions : ( 1 ) The intersection of deep faults and contemporaneous faults at the margin of the Sanshui Basin led to the formation of an excellent structure as passageway for ore fluids; (2) The special ore-hosted rock association forms a ore gathering-trap structure that favors the precipitation of ore; (3) The silver-rich old basement, multi-stage mineralization and multi-episode volcanic activities which constitute a geothermal convection system.     

Biomarkers in the Molar Tooth （MT）-Bearing Limestones in the Jilin-Liaoning Area of China

The origin of Molar Tooth (MT) carbonates has been argued for more than 100 years, which are a kind of Proterozoic carbonates especially composed of microsparite with ptygmatically folded and sheet-like structures. Biomarkers detected in the microcalcsparite from the Wanlong and Xingmincun formations in the Jilin-Liaoning area showed there are abundant normal alkanes, isoprenoids, hopanes, steranes, alkylmethylcyclohexanes, and alkyleyclohexanes, indicating a diversity of biological source: long-chain isoprenoids, the major components of chlorophyll, such as C19, C20, a kind of major biomarkers synthesized early by isoprenoid monomers; hopanes a type of characteristic biomarkers from prokaryote, such as archaebacteria and cyanobacteria; sterane a biomarker for eukaryote; and two kinds of alkanes with C17, C18 as the main peaks representing aquatic bacteria and with C23, C24 as the main peaks representing fungi, respectively. Biomarker analysis showed that MT is the result of bacterial and algal activities, which is a kind of organisms between aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, reproducing well in normal or slightly saline sea water under weak oxidation-reduction conditions, resulting in rapid deposition of calcite as microsparite clue to some mechanisms.     

A Least-squares Approach to Depth Determination from Numerical Horizontal Self-potential Gradients

We have developed a least-squares minimization approach to depth determination of a buried ore deposit from numerical horizontal gradients obtained from self-potential (SP) data using filters of successive window lengths (graticule spacings). The problem of depth determination from SP gradients has been transformed into the problem of finding a solution to a nonlinear equation of the form f(z)=0. Formulas have been derived for vertical and horizontal cylinders and spheres. Procedures are also formulated to estimate the electrical dipole moment and the polarization angle. The method is applied to synthetic data with and without random noise. Finally, the validity of the method is tested on two field examples. In both cases, the depth obtained is found to be in a very good agreement with that obtained from drilling information.     

Space-time mapping of soil salinity using probabilistic bayesian maximum entropy

The mapping of saline soils is the first task before any reclamation effort. Reclamation is based on the knowledge of soil salinity in space and how it evolves with time. Soil salinity is traditionally determined by soil sampling and laboratory analysis. Recently, it became possible to complement these hard data with soft secondary data made available using field sensors like electrode probes. In this study, we had two data sets. The first includes measurements of field salinity (EC_a) at 413 locations and 19 time instants. The second, which is a subset of the first (13 to 20 locations), contains, in addition to EC_a, salinity determined in the laboratory (EC_2.5). Based on a procedure of cross-validation, we compared the prediction performance in the space-time domain of 3 methods: kriging using either only hard data (HK) or hard and mid interval soft data (HMIK), and Bayesian maximum entropy (BME) using probabilistic soft data. We found that BME was less biased, more accurate and giving estimates, which were better correlated with the observed values than the two kriging techniques. In addition, BME allowed one to delineate with better detail saline from non-saline areas.     

Microseismicity and active deformation of Messinia,SW Greece

By deploying a 30 3-component digital seismic array in the Messiniakos gulf and the surrounding region, we recorded for a period of 45 days the microseismic activity. With a minimum of six records per event, we located 1121 earthquakes corresponding to an average of 20 events per day. For the hypocenter location we used a local velocity model adopted to two controlled source seismic experiments. Within the array, traveltime residuals were within ± 0.2 s and the epicentral accuracy in the order of ± 2 km, while the hypocentral one is twice this value. Correlation of the seismicity with the tectonic elements indicated that most of the NW-SE oriented faults are active with strike-slip movement along this orientation and extension perpendicular to it. The neogene basins of Messini, Meligalas and Megalopolis are seismically very active and their eastern flanks are delineated by higher seismic activity than their western ones. This indicates that the basins are asymmetric with master faults defining their eastern-northeastern flanks. This hypothesis is supported by the asymmetric structure mapped at the offshore Messiniakos basin as densely spaced high resolution reflection seismic profiles have revealed. The western margins of the basins are less deformed and the seismic activity is dispersed over several minor NW-SE faults. Since the NW-SE striking faults onshore are truncated by major NE-SW oriented ones, their overall length is shortened, reducing their seismic potential and capacity to store large stresses that could produce events above Ms6.1. Offshore western Messinia, in the Ionian Sea, the size and activity of the faults is significantly larger and prone to develop events of larger magnitudes. Subcrustal seismicity indicates a deepening of the foci to the east-northeast.Part of this work was presented at the CIESM Conference, Monaco, 2001, and in the EGS General Assembly, Nice, 2001.     

Statistical Detection and Characterization of a Deviation from the Gutenberg-Richter Distribution above Magnitude 8

— We present a quantitative statistical test for the presence of a crossover c₀ in the Gutenberg-Richter distribution of earthquake seismic moments, separating the usual power-law regime for seismic moments less than c₀ from another faster decaying regime beyond c₀. Our method is based on the transformation of the ordered sample of seismic moments into a series with uniform distribution under condition of no crossover. A simulation method allows us to estimate the statistical significance of the null hypothesis H₀ of an absence of crossover (c₀=infinity). When H₀ is rejected, we estimate the crossover c₀ using two different competing models for the second regime beyond c₀ and the simulation method. For the catalog obtained by aggregating 14 subduction zones of the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, our estimate of the crossover point is log(c₀)=28.14 ± 0.40 (c₀ in dyne-cm), corresponding to a crossover magnitude m_W=8.1 ± 0.3. For separate subduction zones, the corresponding estimates are substantially more uncertain, so that the null hypothesis of an identical crossover for all subduction zones cannot be rejected. Such a large value of the crossover magnitude makes it difficult to associate it directly with a seismogenic thickness as proposed by many different authors. Our measure of c₀ may substantiate the concept that the localization of strong shear deformation could propagate significantly in the lower crust and upper mantle, thus increasing the effective size beyond which one should expect a change of regime.     

Numerical Modeling of Ice Jams

A numerical model is proposed to describe the formation of ice jams under the effect of a release wave.