Is stress-insensitive chemical compaction responsible for high overpressures in deeply buried North Sea chalks?

Chalk compaction is often assumed to be controlled by a combination of mechanical and effective stress-related chemical processes, the latter commonly referred to as pressure solution. Such effective stress-driven compaction would result in elevated porosities in overpressured chalks compared with otherwise identical, but normally pressured chalks. The high porosities that are frequently observed in overpressured North Sea chalks have previously been reported to reflect such effective stress-dependent compaction.However, several wells with deeply buried chalk sequences also exhibit low porosities at high pore pressures. To investigate the possible origins of these overpressures, basin modeling was performed in a selected well (NOR 1/3-5) offshore Norway. This modeling was based on both effective stress-driven mechanical porosity reduction, which enables modeling of disequilibrium compaction, and on stress-insensitive chemical compaction where the porosity reduction is caused by thermally activated diagenesis.The modeling has demonstrated that the present day porosities and pore pressures of the chalks could be successfully replicated with mechanical porosity loss as the only process leading to chalk porosity reduction. However, the modeled porosity and fluid pressure history of the sediments deviated significantly from the porosity and pore pressure versus depth relationships observed in non-reservoir North Sea chalks today. To the contrary, modeling which was based on thermally activated porosity loss due to diagenesis (as a supplement to mechanical compaction), resulted in modeled chalk histories that are consistent with present day observations.It was therefore inferred that disequilibrium compaction could not account for all of the pore pressure development in overpressured chalks in the study area. The observation that modeling including temperature-controlled diagenetic porosity reduction gave plausible results, suggests that such porosity reduction may in fact be operating in chalks as well as in clastic rocks. If this is correct, then improved methods for pore pressure identification and fluid flow analysis in basins containing chalks should be developed.     

西昆仑塔什库尔干铜矿区成矿时代初步探讨

塔什库尔干铜矿区位于青藏高原的西北缘,处于喀喇昆仑地体与南昆仑地体之间的塔什库尔干-甜水海地体中,其北邻麻扎-康西瓦断裂带,南以塔阿西-乔尔天山-红山湖断裂为界（林清茶等,2006）。塔什库尔干铜矿区主要包括斯如依迭尔铜多金属矿区、吐恩迭尔铜铅多金属矿区、给尔迪库勒铜多金属矿区和辛滚沟铜矿,研究区内新生代岩体发育,前人的研究工作多集中在对碱性岩方面的研究,认为研究区为3700 km长的哀牢山-金沙江新生代碱性岩的西延部分,柯珊（2006）测得苦子干碱性正长岩SHRIMP U-Pb年龄为11.0±0.3 Ma,苦子干透辉石正长花岗岩SHRIMP U-Pb年龄为11.3±0.6 Ma,卡日巴生黑云母二长花岗岩的SHRIMP U-Pb年龄为11.9±0.4 Ma;于晓飞等（2012）测得花岗闪长岩锆石LA-ICP MS U-Pb年龄为12.70±0.13 Ma。由于塔什库尔干铜矿区仍处于普查阶段,对于科学研究具有一定的局限性,如关于矿区Cu的主要赋矿岩体花岗斑岩与角砾岩研究较少,其形成时代的不明确,因此,结合研究区矿床地质特征,利用LA-ICP MS U-Pb定年技术,首次确定花岗斑岩与角砾岩年龄,有助于塔什库尔干铜矿区成矿时代的研究。     

Variation in soil parameters: Implications for modeling surface fluxes and atmospheric boundary-layer development

Soil texture can be heterogeneous; however for land surface-atmospheric modeling purposes, it is often considered homogeneous at a particular point and described by empirical equations which have been formulated to describe average hydraulic and thermodynamic processes in the soil. Large deviations in the variables and coefficients used in these empirical equations have been previously documented. One of the coefficients is varied by plus-and-minus one standard deviation about its mean, and tested in a coupled atmospheric-plant-soil model. Results of model simulations show that the effects on surface fluxes and boundary-layer development are larges for dry to moderate values of soil moisture, particularly for bare soil conditions.     

Geological constraints of pore pressure detection in shales from seismic data

Methods for detection of pore fluid overpressures in shales from seismic data have become widespread in the oil industry. Such methods are largely based on the identification of anomalous seismic velocities, and on subsequent determination of pore pressures through relationships between seismic velocities and the vertical effective stress (VES). Although it is well known that lithology variations and compaction mechanisms should be accounted for in pore pressure evaluation, a systematic approach to evaluation of these factors in seismic pore pressure prediction seems to be absent. We have investigated the influence of lithology variations and compaction mechanism on shale velocities from acoustic logs. This was performed by analyses of 80 wells from the northern North Sea and 24 wells from the Haltenbanken area. The analyses involved identification of large‐scale density and velocity variations that were unrelated to overpressure variations, which served as a basis for the analyses of the resolution of overpressure variations from well log data. The analyses demonstrated that the overpressures in neither area were associated with compaction disequilibrium. A significant correlation between acoustic velocity and fluid overpressure nevertheless exists in the Haltenbanken data, whereas the correlation between these two parameters is weak to non‐existing in the North Sea shales. We do not presently know why acoustic velocities in the two areas respond differently to fluid overpressuring. Smectitic rocks often have low permeabilities, and define the top of overpressures in the northern North Sea when they are buried below 2 km. As smectitic rocks are characterized by low densities and low acoustic velocities, their presence may be identified from seismic data. Smectite identification from seismic data may thus serve as an indirect overpressure indicator in some areas. Our investigations demonstrate the importance of including geological work and process understanding in pore pressure evaluation work. As a response to the lack of documented practice within this area, we suggest a workflow for geological analyses that should be performed and integrated with seismic pore pressure prediction.     

Plant–Arthropod Associations from the Lower Miocene of the Most Basin in Northern Bohemia (Czech Republic): A Preliminary Report

Terrestrial plants and insects currently account for the majority of the Earth's biodiversity, and approximately half of insect species are herbivores. Thus, insects and plants share ancient associations that date back more than 400 Myr. However, investigations of their past interactions are at the preliminary stages in Western Europe. Herein, we present the first results of our study of various feeding damage based on a dataset of nearly 3500 examined plant specimens from the Lower Miocene of the Lagerst?tte Bílina Mine in the Most Basin, Czech Republic. This site provides a unique view of the Neogene freshwater ecosystems. It has long been studied by scientists working in different branches of sedimentology, paleobotany, and paleozoology. The fossils are preserved in three characteristic horizons overlaying the coal seam (Clayey Superseam Horizon, Delta Sandy Horizon, and Lake Clayey Horizon), reflecting paleoenvironmental changes in a short time period of development. The trace fossils are classified as functional feeding groups or “guilds”, without searching for a direct cause or a recent analog host relation. Approximately 23% of specimens of dicotyledonous plant leaves were found to be damaged and associated with some leaf “morphotypes”. Deciduous plant–host taxa, and those with a chartaceous texture typical of riparian habitats, were frequently damaged, such as Populus, recorded with two species Populus zaddachii and Populus populina (57.9% and 31% herbivory levels, respectively), followed by Acer, Alnus, and Carya, averaging almost 30% of damaged leaves/leaflets. There has been evidence of 60 damage types (DT) representing all functional feeding groups recorded at the Bílina Mine, including 12 types of leaf mines and 16 gall-type DT. In total, Lower Miocene of the Lagerst?tte Bílina Mine exhibits a high level of external foliage feeding types (23.7%), and a low level of more specialized DT, such as galls (4.3%) and leaf mines (<1%). A broader comparison based on DT of the main sedimentary environments shows significance supporting different biomes by frequency of damage levels and DT diversities.