THERMAL HISTORY MODELLING AND TRANSIENT HEAT PULSES: NEW INSIGHTS INTO HYDROCARBON EXPULSION AND 'HOT FLUSHES' IN THE VULCAN SUB-BASIN, TIMOR SEA

1999 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Kennard ◽  
I. Deighton ◽  
D.S. Edwards ◽  
J.B. Colwell ◽  
G.W. O'Brien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal History ◽  
Burial History ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Timor Sea ◽  
Heat Pulses ◽  
Nearby Source ◽  
Hydrocarbon Expulsion ◽  
Thermal Pulses

Thermal history data from wells in the Vulcan Sub- basin and adjacent platforms show clear evidence that many reservoir sections have experienced relatively shortlived, high- temperature flushes during the Late Tertiary. These transient heat pulses are related to slow migration of hot fluids and hydrocarbons from adjacent depocentres, or rapid flow of deep-seated brines during Late Miocene- Early Pliocene tectonic reactivation. The hot fluids have been focussed into structured reservoir sections via high- permeability pathways and reactivated faults. As a consequence, most exploration wells are not truly representative of the thermal regime of nearby source kitchens.In order to constrain the regional thermal and expulsion history of the region, and to address the issue of thermal pulses, burial history analysis of 44 wells and 18 depocentre sites was carried out. This analysis utilises a simplified transient heat pulse model developed as part of the WinBury™ burial and thermal geohistory modelling software. The transient and steady-state thermal history models are constrained by reflectance and fluorescence maturity data, together with apatite fission track analysis and fluid inclusion palaeo-temperature data.

The times they are a-changin': Australian biozones, petroleum basins, and the international geologic time scale (GTS) 2012

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Tegan Smith ◽  
John Laurie ◽  
Lisa Hall ◽  
Robert Nicoll ◽  
Andrew Kelman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Age Dating ◽  
Burial History ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Petroleum Systems ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Times ◽  
Hydrocarbon Expulsion

The international Geologic Time Scale (GTS) continually evolves due to refinements in age dating and the addition of more defined stages. The GTS 2012 has replaced GTS 2004 as the global standard timescale, resulting in changes to the age and duration of most chronological stages. These revisions have implications for interpreted ages and durations of sedimentary rocks in Australian basins, with ramifications for petroleum systems modelling. Accurate stratigraphic ages are required to reliably model the burial history of a basin, hence kerogen maturation and hydrocarbon expulsion and migration. When the resolution of the time scale is increased, models that utilise updated ages will better reflect the true basin history. The international GTS is largely built around northern hemisphere datasets. At APPEA 2009, Laurie et al. announced a program to tie Australian biozones to GTS 2004. Now, with the implementation of GTS 2012, these ties are being updated and refined, requiring a comprehensive review of the correlations between Australian and International biozonation schemes. The use of Geoscience Australia’s Timescales Database and a customised ‘Australian Datapack’ for the visualisation software package TimeScale Creator has greatly facilitated the transition from GTS 2004 to GTS 2012, as anticipated in the design of the program in 2009. Geoscience Australia’s basin biozonation and stratigraphy charts (e.g. Northern Carnarvon and Browse basins) are being reproduced to reflect the GTS 2012 and modified stratigraphic ages. Additionally, new charts are being added to the series, including a set of onshore basin charts, such as the Georgina and Canning basins.

USING 2D AND 3D BASIN MODELLING TO INVESTIGATE CONTROLS ON HYDROCARBON MIGRATION AND ACCUMULATION IN THE VULCAN SUB-BASIN, TIMOR SEA, NORTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Fujii ◽  
G.W. O’Brien ◽  
P. Tingate ◽  
G. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Late Jurassic ◽  
3D Modelling ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Lateral Migration ◽  
Burial History ◽  
Oil Migration ◽  
Early Migration ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Timor Sea ◽  
2D And 3D

2D and 3D basin models have been constructed of the southern and central parts of the Vulcan Sub-basin region, in the Timor Sea. This work was carried out to better elucidate the petroleum migration and accumulation histories, and exploration potential, of the region.2D/3D modelling in the Swan Graben indicates that horizontal and downward oil expulsion from the source rocks of the Late Jurassic Lower Vulcan Formation into the Plover Formation sandstone was active from the Early Cretaceous to the present day. Oil migration from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Late Cretaceous Puffin Formation sands in the Puffin field was simulated by lateral migration along the bottom of an Upper Vulcan Formation seal and by vertical migration above the seal edge. Modelling also indicates that Late Jurassic sequences over the Montara Terrace are thermally immature, and did not contribute to the hydrocarbon accumulations in the region. On the other hand, 3D modelling results indicate that Middle Jurassic Plover Formation in the Montara Terrace became thermally mature after the Pliocene and hence it could contribute both to the hydrocarbon accumulations and the overall hydrocarbon inventory in the area.In the southern Cartier Trough, the Lower Vulcan Formation is typically at a lower thermal maturity than that seen in the Swan Graben, due to a combination of a relatively recent (Pliocene) enhanced burial history and a thinner Lower Vulcan Formation. Here, horizontal and downward oil/gas expulsion from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Plover Formation sandstone was active from the Late Tertiary to present day, which is significantly later than the expulsion in the Swan Graben. Oil migration from the Lower Vulcan Formation into the Jabiru structure via the Plover Formation carrier bed, was simulated in both 2D and 3D modelling. In particular, 3D modelling simulated oil migration into the Jabiru structure, not only from the southern Cartier Trough after the Miocene, but also early migration from the northern Swan Graben in the Early Cretaceous.In the central Cartier Trough, the areal extent of both generation and expulsion increased as a result of rapid subsidence from about 5 Ma to present day. This Pliocene loading has resulted in the rapid maturation of the Early to Middle and Late Jurassic source system, and expulsion of oil very recently.

Diagenesis of the Sappington Formation in the Bridger Range, Montana: Implications for the burial and thermal history of the Western Crazy Mountain Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton Schultz ◽  
Michael Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Thermal History ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Hydrocarbon Generation ◽  
Burial History ◽  
Burial Diagenesis ◽  
Early Paleocene ◽  
History Of ◽  
Feldspar Dissolution ◽  
Ferroan Dolomite

The Devonian-Mississippian Sappington Formation in the Bridger Range, Montana was investigated for its paragenetic sequence and thermal history. These results were used to establish a burial history for the area and compared to data from nearby oil and gas wells. The paragenetic evolution of the Sappington includes early diagenetic feldspar dissolution, formation of quartz overgrowths, and illite precipitation during early diagenesis at temperatures < 50 °C. Subsequent burial diagenesis resulted in the precipitation of non-ferroan and ferroan dolomite, followed by calcite cementation and replacement, pyrite replacement, and hydrocarbon generation and expulsion at temperatures > 130 °C. Devonian formations were the source of the non-ferroan dolomite cement and began precipitating in the latest Mississippian. Subsequent growth of ferroan dolomite resulted from clay transformation reactions in the Upper and Lower Sappington Members and was initiated during rapid burial in the late Cretaceous. The Bridger Range and the adjacent Western Crazy Mountain Basin underwent similar Paleozoic and Mesozoic burial histories. Vastly different Cenozoic burial histories resulted from movement along the Cross Range and Pass thrusts that caused the Bridger Range to begin uplift prior to the cessation of deposition of the Livingston Group in the early Paleocene. The discrepancies in burial history caused the Sappington Formation to reach a maximum temperature of ~135 °C in the Bridger Range and ~230 °C in the western Crazy Mountain Basin.

Thermal history of the Mackenzie Plain, Northwest Territories, Canada: Insights from low-temperature thermochronology of the Devonian Imperial Formation

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 767-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy W. Powell ◽  
Dale R. Issler ◽  
David A. Schneider ◽  
Karen M. Fallas ◽  
Daniel F. Stockli
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Thermal History ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Length Distribution ◽  
Sedimentary Basins ◽  
Track Length ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Burial History ◽  
Cooling History ◽  
History Of

Abstract Devonian strata from the Mackenzie Plain, Northern Canadian Cordillera, have undergone two major burial and unroofing events since deposition, providing an excellent natural laboratory to assess the effects of protracted cooling history on low-temperature thermochronometers in sedimentary basins. Apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He (AHe, ZHe) and apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology data were collected from seven samples across the Mackenzie Plain. AFT single grain ages from six samples span the Cambrian to Miocene with few Neoproterozoic dates. Although there are no correlations between Dpar and AFT date or track length distribution, a relationship exists between grain chemistry and age. We calculate the parameter rmr0 from apatite chemistry and distinguish up to three discrete kinetic populations per sample, with consistent Cambrian–Carboniferous, Triassic–Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Cenozoic pooled ages. Fifteen ZHe dates range from 415 ± 33 Ma to 40 ± 3 Ma, and AHe dates from 53 analyses vary from 225 ± 14 Ma to 3 ± 0.2 Ma. Whereas several samples exhibit correlations between date and radiation damage (eU), all samples demonstrate varying degrees of intra-sample date dispersion. We use chemistry-dependent fission track annealing kinetics to explain dispersion in both our AFT and AHe data sets and detail the thermal history of strata that have experienced a protracted cooling history through the uppermost crust. Thermal history modeling of AFT and AHe samples reveals that the Devonian strata across the Mackenzie Plain reached maximum burial temperatures (∼90 °C–190 °C) prior to Paleozoic to Mesozoic unroofing. Strata were reheated to lower temperatures in the Cretaceous to Paleogene (∼65 °C–110 °C), and have a protracted Cenozoic cooling history, with Paleogene and Neogene cooling pulses. This thermal information is compared with borehole organic thermal maturity profiles to assess the regional burial history. Ultimately, these data reflect the complications, and possibilities, of low-temperature thermochronology in sedimentary rocks where detrital variance results in a broad range of diffusion and annealing kinetics.

Thermal evolution of the southeastern Canadian Cordillera

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1618-1642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall R. Parrish
Keyword(s):  
Thermal History ◽  
Thermal Evolution ◽  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Paper Analysis ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Metasedimentary Rocks ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Monashee Complex ◽  
History Of

The eastern metamorphic culmination of the southern Canadian Cordillera is a composite core complex, which at low structural levels exposes the Monashee décollement, a major contractional fault with large Late Cretaceous to Paleocene east-directed displacement. The hanging wall of this fault, the Selkirk allochthon, is a sheared thrust sheet, recording metamorphic and deformational events spanning the period from ca. 170 to 60 Ma, with younger kinematic and thermal events recorded at progressively deeper levels. The Monashee complex, the footwall terrane of the Monashee décollement, consists of an Early Proterozoic crystalline basement complex overlain by Late Proterozoic and perhaps Phanerozoic metasedimentary rocks. The Monashee complex was significantly metamorphosed and deformed in Paleogene time (60–55 Ma), on the basis of U–Pb data presented in this paper. Analysis of U–Pb titanite data show that the duration of this metamorphic event was but a few million years at most, and it provides a strong argument that the heat source for this metamorphism was the overlying hot Selkirk allochthon. A ~1.85–1.90 Ga metamorphism also is recorded within the Precambrian basement. The tectonometamorphic chronology of the footwall and hanging-wall terranes of the Monashee décollement are very different, and only share Paleogene thermal–tectonic events when the two were structurally juxtaposed by deep-seated thrusting. Although this region is the hinterland of the foreland belt of the southern Cordillera, the thermal and tectonic history of the metamorphic core zone is analogous to that in a thrust belt setting where warmer rocks progressively override cooler rocks as displacement migrates toward the foreland. In such settings, a protracted and more complex thermal history of the hanging wall is juxtaposed with a simpler thermal history of shorter duration of the footwall. Seismic reflection and chronological information indicate that the Monashee décollement is the same structure as the basal décollement beneath the full width of the southern Rocky Mountains, representing its deep-seated continuation in the hinterland. Tectonic denudation resulting from Eocene extension and crustal-scale tilting, followed by late Tertiary erosion, brought these rocks to the surface for study.

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