Oil-bearing inclusions in vein quartz and calcite and,bitumens in veins: Testament to multiple phases of hydrocarbon migration in the Barrandian basin (lower Palaeozoic), Czech Republic

The petroleum charge history of the Barrandian basin was investigated by analysing quartz and calcite and organic phases that occur in veins and fractures cutting dolerite sills within the Liteň Formation (Silurian). The geochemical characteristics of fluid inclusions trapped in vein quartz and calcite, vein bitumens and adjacent potential source rocks when combined with burial and thermal history data reflect the presence of at least three separate hydrocarbon charge episodes. Solid highly reflecting (R_max = 0.92–1.49%) bitumen provides information on the first and oldest episode of oil migration. The precursor oil was probably derived relatively early during diagenesis from nearby organic-rich sediments and was subsequently thermally altered to form the solid bitumen.     

Conditions during syntectonic vein formation in the footwall of the Absaroka Thrust Fault, Idaho–Wyoming–Utah fold and thrust belt

The Twin Creek Limestone in the footwall of the Absaroka thrust sheet contains three sets of bed-normal syntectonic calcite veins. Vein formation occurred during Cretaceous motion along the Absaroka thrust fault as indicated by (1) crosscutting relationships among these vein sets, (2) a previously dated solution cleavage, and (3) calcite twin analysis. Fluid inclusions in the veins and overburden estimates constrain inclusion entrapment temperatures to be between 175 °C and 328 °C. Results from stable oxygen isotopes indicate that the host and vein fluid compositions were in near isotopic equilibrium. Applying both reasonable geothermal gradients and constraints on overburden temperature yields fluid pressures during vein precipitation that are near hydrostatic. All data taken together suggest both that vein formation within the Twin Creek Formation occurred in a relatively closed system, and that the veins filled near hydrostatic fluid pressure. Because the veins fill precursory cracks, vein filling might not reflect the maximum fluid pressure that existed during the complete vein forming process.     

Interpreting fracture development from diagenetic mineralogy and thermoelastic contraction modeling

Four sets of thin-section scale, Mode I (open mode), cemented microfractures are present in sandstone from the Eocene Misoa Formation, Maracaibo basin, Venezuela. The first set of microfractures is intragranular (F1), formed early during compaction and are filled with quartz cement precipitated at temperatures equal to or higher than 100 °C. The second set of microfractures (F2) is cemented by bituminite–pyrite, formed at temperatures between 60 and 100 °C, and are associated with kerogen maturation and hydrocarbon migration from underlying overpressured source rocks. The third set of microfractures (F3) is fully cemented by either quartz cement or calcite cement. The former has fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures between 149 and 175 °C. These temperatures are mostly higher than maximum burial temperatures (160 °C), suggesting that upward flow, caused by a pressure gradient, transported silica vertically which crystallized into the fractures. Upward decompression may have also caused a P_CO2 drop, which, at constant temperature, allowed simultaneous carbonate precipitation into the third microfracture set. The fourth set of thin-section scale microfractures (F4) is open or partially cemented by siderite–hematite and other iron oxides. The presence of hematite and iron oxides in microfractures is evidence for oxidizing conditions that may be associated with the uplift of the Misoa formation. In order to time and place constraints on the depth of formation of the fourth set of microfractures, we have coupled published quartz cementation kinetic algorithms with uniaxial strain equations and determined if, in fact, they could be associated with the uplift of the formation. Our results suggest that thermoelastic contraction, caused by the formation's uplift, erosion, and consequent cooling is a feasible mechanism for the origin of the last fracture set. Hence, we infer that meteoric water invasion into the fractures, at the end of the uplift, cause the precipitation of oxides and the transformation of siderite to hematite.     

Modèle de formation du gisement d'argent d'Imiter (Anti-Atlas oriental,Maroc). Nouveaux apports de l'analyse structurale et minéralogique

Based on a combined geometrical and mineralogical analysis, a three-stage model of formation of the mineralized veins of the giant Imiter silver deposit (Anti-Atlas, Morocco) is herein proposed. A first episode is characterized by the development of quartz, pink dolomite and Ag-rich minerals veins formed during a dextral transpressive event. The second episode is associated with a normal left-lateral motion that re-opens previous structures, filled by pink dolomite gangue. Alteration stages contribute to a local Ag enrichment. To cite this article: J. Tuduri et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2005).     

Conditions for veining in the Barrandian Basin (Lower Palaeozoic), Czech Republic: evidence from fluid inclusion and apatite fission track analysis

The interplay between fracture propagation and fluid composition and circulation has been examined by deciphering vein sequences in Silurian and Devonian limestones and shales at Kosov quarry in the Barrandian Basin. Three successive vein generations were recognised that can be attributed to different stages of a basinal cycle. Almost all generations of fracture cements host abundant liquid hydrocarbon inclusions that indicate repeated episodes of petroleum migration through the strata during burial, tectonic compression and uplift.The earliest veins that propagated prior to folding were displacive fibrous “beef” calcite veins occurring parallel to the bedding of some shale beds. Hydrocarbon inclusions within calcite possess homogenisation temperatures between 58 and 68 °C and show that the “beef” calcites originated in the deeper burial environment, during early petroleum migration from overpressured shales.E–W-striking extension veins that postdate “beef” calcite formed in response to Variscan orogenic deformations. Based on apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) data and other geological evidence, the veins probably formed 380–315 Ma ago, roughly coinciding with peak burial heating of the strata, folding and the intrusion of Variscan synorogenic granites. The veins that crosscut diagenetic cements and low-amplitude stylolites in host limestones are oriented semi-vertically to the bedding plane and are filled with cloudy, twinned calcite, idiomorphic smoky quartz and residues of hardened bitumen. Calcite and quartz cements contain abundant blue and blue–green-fluorescing primary inclusions of liquid hydrocarbons that homogenise between 50 and 110 °C. Geochemical characteristics of the fluids as revealed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, particularly the presence of olefins and parent aromatic hydrocarbons (phenonthrene), suggest that the oil entrapped in the inclusions experienced intense but geologically fast heating that resulted in thermal pyrolysis of its hydrocarbons. This implies that the organic fluids in the fractures may have been partly influenced by heating associated with igneous intrusions that are hidden below the surface.Subvertical N–S-striking veins represent the most recent fracturing event(s). Some of these veins are only a few millimeters thick and sparsely mineralised with thin leaf-like quartz crystals that contain tiny blue and yellow–orange-fluorescing hydrocarbon inclusions. Most of the N–S veins, however, occur as thick calcite veins that generally crystallised at 70 °C or less from H₂O–NaCl solutions of variable salinity with admixture of petroleum. The origin of these fluids is interpreted in terms of deeply circulating meteoric waters that partially mixed with deep basinal fluids. Wider structural considerations combined with fission-track analysis of adjacent host sediments suggest that N–S veins formed during post-Mesozoic uplift of the area, probably in response to major Tertiary Alpine deformations transmitted far into the Bohemian Massif.