The organic geochemistry of oil seeps from the Sierra de Perijá eastern foothills, Lake Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela

The organic geochemistry of samples from 11 oil seeps was studied. The samples were collected from the Cachirí area, Carboniferous Region of Tulé (Lake Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela), associated with the Tigre Fault. Biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, n-alkanes, acyclic isoprenoids, and aromatic steroids) were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). These hydrocarbon rich fluids have undergone biodegradation (2-6 on the Peters and Moldowan scale), showing both the partial loss of n-alkanes and the microbial degradation of isoprenoids and steranes. These oil seeps were generated from a mature calcareous source rock that was deposited in a marine paleoenvironment under reducing conditions. Moreover, these seeps are likely derived from the Cretaceous La Luna Formation that reached a level of maturity near the peak of oil generation in the study area. The nature of the studied oil seeps, together with the oil generation models reported for this rock unit in the study area, suggests that these oils are a mixture of an initially heavy, altered oil and a second migrated light crude oil resulting from two generation pulses from the La Luna Formation. Evidence for the presence of light oil trapped in the study area should prompt re-exploration in the northwestern coast of Lake Maracaibo in shallow reservoirs, previously discarded because they usually demonstrated a lack of light oils.     

Constrained Kriging: An Alternative to Predict Global Recoverable Resources

Natural Resources Research - In most NI-43-101 resource assessment reports the prediction of global in situ resources is performed by either inverse distance weighting, ordinary kriging (OK) or...     

Bridge construction and river channel morphology—A comprehensive study of flow behavior and sediment size alteration of the River Chel,India

Human has always modified its surroundings for better adaptation which include the building of urban landscapes, dams, and engineering constructions like bridges and other infrastructures. It has been unveiled from the study of River Chel that when the rail bridge was constructed before 1913, the natural width of the river was nevertheless maintained but the problem was initiated and after the road bridge construction in 1970s when the river width was minimized,the morphological changes started in a large scale. Such modifications have affected nature as well as human communities both positively and negatively. This paper will try to portray the evolution of channel shifting and changes of sediment size regime that the River Chel is experiencing due to the construction of bridges across the middle part of its course. So, this study is concerned about the changes in channel pathway since last 100 years and field-based hydrological parameters and sediment size analysis reveals some distinct changes in the channel planform with alteration of sediment size regime. Simulation of the hydraulic modeling in HEC-RAS specifies the probable affected area with bridges and without bridges in both upstream and downstream of the river course. Hence, the study unveils the alteration of the river hydrology and sediment size caused due to anthropogenic effects and impact of such flow analysis has been evaluated through the bridge scour calculation by CUS method. The discussion concludes that the Odlabari road bridge construction (after 1970) has modified the normal hydrological behavior of the river with a higher probability of bank erosion in downstream and floods in upstream resulting river bottleneck condition.     

Morphotectonic analysis of alluvial fan dynamics: comparative study in spatio-temporal scale of Himalayan foothill,India

Alluvial fan is a depositional fluvial landform that is characterised by sediment flow and hydrological processes and is also controlled by tectonic activity. These extraordinary features have always attracted researchers since the past as they preserve the past records, but now, this study is focused on the formation meso-level fans with its spatio-temporal dynamic nature. These tributaries have formed secondary alluvial fans at their debouching points. The dynamics of the fans are controlled by the hydrological responses and tectonic base and also by the sedimentation processes. The origin of these tributaries and their respective fans are related to the last stage of Himalayan uplift. This is the region of Himalayan foreland basin which contains the main frontal thrust and makes the region tectonically very active. The region is drained by many large rivers and their numerous tributaries. The active tectonism, the configuration of the basin and also the deposition of the sediments carried by these rivers have formed alluvial fans where the channel debouches into the widened valley. In the present study, the meso-level alluvial fans formed by River Gish and the Rivers Neora and Murti have been studied. Both these fans are present in the piedmont region of the Himalayas, but they deliver different characteristics, and the nature of their deposition is also different. This is mainly because of the influence of the minor faults in the region which control the channel pattern and also have a great influence in the sediment delivery to the downstream section of the channels. Thus, in order to understand the influence of tectonics in the dynamics of these fans, some morphotectonic parameters have been taken into consideration. These include mountain front sinuosity index, valley floor width-to-depth ratio, and tectonic tilt. The calculated hypsometric integral also depicts that the two fans are at different stages of development.