Post‐stack stratigraphic inversion workflow applied to carbon dioxide storage: application to the saline aquifer of Sleipner field‡

In the Norwegian North Sea, the Sleipner field produces gas with a high CO₂ content. For environmental reasons, since 1996, more than 11 Mt of this carbon dioxide (CO₂) have been injected in the Utsira Sand saline aquifer located above the hydrocarbon reservoir. A series of seven 3D seismic surveys were recorded to monitor the CO₂ plume evolution. With this case study, time‐lapse seismics have been shown to be successful in mapping the spread of CO₂ over the past decade and to ensure the integrity of the overburden. Stratigraphic inversion of seismic data is currently used in the petroleum industry for quantitative reservoir characterization and enhanced oil recovery. Now it may also be used to evaluate the expansion of a CO₂ plume in an underground reservoir. The aim of this study is to estimate the P‐wave impedances via a Bayesian model‐based stratigraphic inversion. We have focused our study on the 1994 vintage before CO₂ injection and the 2006 vintage carried out after a CO₂ injection of 8.4 Mt. In spite of some difficulties due to the lack of time‐lapse well log data on the interest area, the full application of our inversion workflow allowed us to obtain, for the first time to our knowledge, 3D impedance cubes including the Utsira Sand. These results can be used to better characterize the spreading of CO₂ in a reservoir. With the post‐stack inversion workflow applied to CO₂ storage, we point out the importance of the a priori model and the issue to obtain coherent results between sequential inversions of different seismic vintages. The stacking velocity workflow that yields the migration model and the a priori model, specific to each vintage, can induce a slight inconsistency in the results.     

Effects of waves on the initiation of headland-associated sandbanks

Linear sandbanks appear in the lee of coastal headlands where the hydrodynamics are dominated by strong tidal currents and the seabed is characterized by an abundance of sands. They may develop as symmetrical sandbanks on either sides of the headland or as an unique banner bank. The present study numerically investigates the combined effects of waves and tide on the initial development of headland-associated sandbanks. A morphological model based on the coupling of the wave propagation module SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) with the three-dimensional circulation module COHERENS (COupled Hydrodynamical-Ecological model for REgioNal and Shelf seas) is applied to an idealized Gaussian shaped headland for waves conditions varying in heights and directions at the offshore boundary. The coupling considers the effects of the interactions between the wave and current bottom boundary layers, namely the enhanced levels of turbulence near the bottom and the increase of the total bottom shear stress. Waves substantially modify the initial development of sandbanks formed by suspension narrowing their width and reorienting them along the side of the headland. They weakly impact the morphogenesis of sandbanks by bedload favoring on a short-time scale the growth of symmetric circular-shaped features and a central depositional spit prolonging the headland tip. Waves of transverse directions toward the tip of the headland contribute to the initiation by suspension of a well-developed feature in the headland side of low energy limiting the seabed evolution in the exposed area.     

Use of non-linear filtering for the regional–residual separation of potential field data

Regional–residual separation is essential in gravity and magnetic data interpretation and a variety of techniques have been proposed. Graphical determination of the regional allows geological information to be taken into account. Upward continuation can be used to obtain the regional field either empirically or using some hypothesis about the geology. In some cases, a matched filter can be designed and used to separate deep and shallow sources. Simple low pass filtering has also been used but without much success. Here we propose to use a non-linear filter approach to remove gravity and magnetic anomalies smaller than a given width. This technique attempts to mimic the graphical separation method. The results from synthetic models are presented as well as the results from a case study in eastern Canada and compared to regional gravity and magnetic anomalies obtained by other techniques. Contrary to the regional fields obtained by upward continuation, non-linear filtering does not have any physical meaning. However, its main advantage is that it gives a regional component of the gravity or magnetic field similar to the one obtained from a graphical separation.     

Precipitation Changes in High Southern Latitudes from Global Reanalyses: A Cautionary Tale

The temporal consistency of the moisture fields (precipitation, evaporation and total precipitable water) from five global reanalyses is examined over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean during 1989?C2009. This concern is important given that (1) global reanalyses are known to be prone to inhomogeneities and artificial trends caused by changes in the observing system, and (2) the period of study has seen a dramatic increase in the volume of satellite observations available for data assimilation. In particular, the study aims to determine whether the recent reanalyses are suitable for investigating changes in Antarctic surface mass balance. The datasets investigated consist of NCEP-2, JRA-25, ERA-Interim, MERRA and CFSR. Strong evidence of spurious changes is found in NCEP-2, JRA-25, MERRA and CFSR, although the magnitude, spatial patterns and timing of these artifacts vary between the reanalyses. MERRA exhibits a jump in Antarctic precipitation-minus-evaporation (P?CE) and in Southern Ocean precipitation in the late 1990s. This jump is related to the introduction of sounding radiances from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU). The impact of AMSU is also discernible, albeit less pronounced, in CFSR data. It is shown that ERA-Interim likely provides the most realistic depiction of the interannual variability and overall change in Antarctic P?CE since 1989. We conclude that the presence of spurious changes is not a solved problem in recent global reanalyses. Caution should continue to be exercised when using these datasets for trend analyses in general, particularly in high southern latitudes.     

Tectonic inversion in a segmented foreland basin from extensional to piggy back settings: The Tucumán basin in NW Argentina

The Tucumán foreland basin is bounded by: 1) basement cored ranges with elevations over 6000 m in the west; 2) inverted extensional grabens to the north; 3) basement thrust blocks in the south and 4) basement cored small ranges in the east. This foreland basin is located between two geological provinces: the Sierras Pampeanas and the Santa Bárbara system.Cretaceous Salta rifting extended southwards covering the entire eastern part of the province of Tucumán in NW Argentina. Syn-rift and post-rift deposits can be recognized in accordance with their architectural geometries. Foreland basin sediments progressively covered the rift deposits as the Andean orogen propagated towards the east.Despite some early studies, the Tucumán basin is poorly documented. For the present study, 44 sections of 2D seismic surveys amounting to more than 730 km were used to describe the structure and the depositional evolution of the basin. The present structure is the result of a long sequence of events that includes a compressional deformation during the Paleozoic, a rifting stage during the Cretaceous and a foreland stage during the late Cenozoic. Although tectonic inversion, which has played a role during the foreland stage since the Miocene, can be observed in many sectors of the basin, it is more prominent along the margins. Reactivation of old basement discontinuities and inversion of Cretaceous normal faults produced the compartmentalization of the foreland, giving rise to the present shape of the Tucumán basin. This evolution is recorded in the Neogene deposits.     

Provenance and reconnaissance study of detrital zircons of the Palaeozoic Cape Supergroup in South Africa: revealing the interaction of the Kalahari and R��o de la Plata cratons

In order to facilitate the understanding of the geological evolution of the Kalahari Craton and its relation to South America, the provenance of the first large-scale cratonic cover sequence of the craton, namely the Ordovician to Carboniferous Cape Supergroup was studied through geochemical analyses of the siliciclastics, and age determinations of detrital zircon. The Cape Supergroup comprises mainly quartz-arenites and a Hirnantian tillite in the basal Table Mountain Group, subgreywackes and mudrocks in the overlying Bokkeveld Group, while siltstones, interbedded shales and quartz-arenites are typical for the Witteberg Group at the top of the Cape Supergroup. Palaeocurrent analyses indicate transport of sediment mainly from northerly directions, off the interior of the Kalahari Craton with subordinate transport from a westerly source in the southwestern part of the basin near Cape Town. Geochemical provenance data suggest mainly sources from passive to active continental margin settings. The reconnaissance study of detrital zircons reveals a major contribution of Mesoproterozoic sources throughout the basin, reflecting the dominance of the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Belt, situated immediately north of the preserved strata of Cape Supergroup, as a source with Archaean-aged zircons being extremely rare. We interpret the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Belt to have been a large morphological divide at the time of deposition of the Cape Supergroup that prevented input of detrital zircons from the interior early Archaean Kaapvaal cratonic block of the Kalahari Craton. Neoproterozoic and Cambrian zircons are abundant and reflect the basement geology of the outcrops of Cape strata. Exposures close to Cape Town must have received sediment from a cratonic fragment that was situated off the Kalahari Craton to the west and that has subsequently drifted away. This cratonic fragment predominantly supplied Meso- to Neoproterozoic, and Cambrian-aged zircon grains in addition to minor Silurian to Lower Devonian zircons and very rare Archaean (2.5?Ga) and late Palaeoproterozoic (1.8-2.0?Ga) ones. No Siluro-Devonian source has yet been identified on the Kalahari Craton, but there are indications for such a source in southern Patagonia. Palaeozoic successions in eastern Argentina carry a similar detrital zircon population to that found here, including evidence of a Silurian to Lower Devonian magmatic event. The Kalahari and Río de la Plata Cratons were thus in all likelihood in close proximity until at least the Carboniferous.     

There’s more to the picture than meets the eye: Sampling microphytobenthos in a heterogeneous environment

Distributions of microphytobenthos are highly heterogeneous at scales as small as a few centimetres. However, the sampling protocols currently used for the absolute determination of microphytobenthos biomass through chlorophyll a concentration measurements in surface sediments are too limited to take this variability into account, typically relying on 3-5 samples taken within a randomly located 1 m² quadrat in a given environment. We address this issue by objectively and quantitatively inferring the minimum number of samples required to obtain reliable estimates of microphytobenthos biomass on the basis of high-resolution sub-sampling (225 regularly spaced samples) within each of nine 1 m² quadrats at an unvegetated sheltered intertidal sandbank of the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). The results were generalised using data obtained in previous studies on an exposed sandy shore and on sheltered estuarine sandy muds of the Eastern English Channel. Estimates of chlorophyll a concentration exhibited a high degree of heterogeneity, both between and within quadrats. The number of samples needed to estimate the average chlorophyll a concentration, and hence mean microphytobenthos biomass with 95% confidence intervals, ranged from 15 to 115, and mainly depended on the presence of global and local gradients within the quadrats. These results have major implications for intertidal ecology by implying a possible systematic bias in the measurement of both microphytobenthos biomass and production of up to 40%. Finally, we emphasise that this issue can be circumvented using field spectrometry or PAM fluorescence measurements coupled with traditional sediment sampling techniques, and urge for unified protocols to be adopted for the routine use of these combined methods.     

Control of deep convection by sub-cloud lifting processes: the ALP closure in the LMDZ5B general circulation model

Recently, a new conceptual framework for deep convection scheme triggering and closure has been developed and implemented in the LMDZ5B general circulation model, based on the idea that deep convection is controlled by sub-cloud lifting processes. Such processes include boundary-layer thermals and evaporatively-driven cold pools (wakes), which provide an available lifting energy that is compared to the convective inhibition to trigger deep convection, and an available lifting power (ALP) at cloud base, which is used to compute the convective mass flux assuming the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection. While the ALP closure was shown to delay the local hour of maximum precipitation over land in better agreement with observations, it results in an underestimation of the convection intensity over the tropical ocean both in the 1D and 3D configurations of the model. The specification of the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection appears to be a key aspect of the closure formulation, as it is weaker over tropical ocean than over land and weaker in moist mid-latitudes than semi-arid regions. We propose a formulation making this velocity increase with the level of free convection, so that the ALP closure is adapted to various environments. Cloud-resolving model simulations of observed oceanic and continental case studies are used to evaluate the representation of lifting processes and test the assumptions at the basis of the ALP closure formulation. Results favor closures based on the lifting power of sub-grid sub-cloud processes rather than those involving quasi-equilibrium with the large-scale environment. The new version of the model including boundary-layer thermals and cold pools coupled together with the deep convection scheme via the ALP closure significantly improves the representation of various observed case studies in 1D mode. It also substantially modifies precipitation patterns in the full 3D version of the model, including seasonal means, diurnal cycle and intraseasonal variability.