Chapter 4 The Central Basin

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Brian Harland ◽  
Simon R. A. Kelly ◽  
Isobel Geddes ◽  
Paul A. Doubleday

Svalbard rocks conveniently divide into younger and older rocks at about the initial 'Carboniferous' boundary. There are, however, latest Devonian strata in places continuous with Carboniferous sedimentation. The older rocks are tectonically as well as stratigraphically complex. Beginning with the sub-Carboniferous (peneplane) unconformity resting variously on Devonian and pre-Devonian strata, it expressly excludes any older rocks.The term basin as in Central Basin applied here is used in a structural sense for what amounts to a broad brachysyncline. The accumulated strata were also formed in sedimentary basins with shifting depocentres. The most obvious is the Paleogene sedimentary and structural basin commonly referred to as the Tertiary Basin. The Central Basin excludes the western and southwestern areas (Chapters 9 and 10) where older and younger rocks are caught up in the Paleogene West Spitsbergen Orogeny. It also excludes the areas, mainly in the islands in the east, where subsidence was less marked at first and tectonic platform conditions prevailed. The younger succession, Tournaisian through Paleogene (a span of about 330 million years) has suffered only minor diastrophism in contrast to earlier events. Central Basin thus refers to the whole post Devonian cover or platform sequence in this study area.Most mineral prospects of economic interest in Svalbard belong to these younger rocks, from the many coal deposits of which Early Carboniferous and especially Early Paleogene horizons have been exploited. Furthermore, in the search for petroleum, source rocks of Late Carboniferous Early Permian, Early to Mid-Triassic and Jurassic age have been identified

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Lockwood ◽  
C. D’Ercole

The basement topography of the Gascoyne Platform and adjoining areas in the Southern Carnarvon Basin was investigated using satellite gravity and seismic data, assisted by a depth to crystalline basement map derived from modelling the isostatic residual gravity anomaly. The resulting enhanced view of the basement topography reveals that the Gascoyne Platform extends further westward than previously indicated, and is bounded by a northerly trending ridge of shallow basement, named the Bernier Ridge.The Bernier Ridge is a product of rift-flank uplift prior to the Valanginian breakup of Gondwana, and lies east of a series of small Mesozoic syn-rift sedimentary basins. Extensive magmatic underplating of the continental margin associated with this event, and a large igneous province is inferred west of the ridge from potential field and seismic data. Significant tectonic events that contributed to the present form of the Bernier Ridge include the creation of the basement material during the Proterozoic assembly of Rodinia, large-scale faulting during the ?Cambrian, uplift and associated glaciation during the early Carboniferous, and rifting of Gondwana during the Late Jurassic. The depositional history and maturity of the Gascoyne Platform and Bernier Ridge show that these terrains have been structurally elevated since the mid-Carboniferous.No wells have been drilled on the Bernier Ridge. The main source rocks within the sedimentary basins west of the Bernier Ridge are probably Jurassic, similar to those in the better-known Abrolhos–Houtman and Exmouth Sub-basins, where they are mostly early mature to mature and within the oil window respectively. Within the Bernier Ridge area, prospective plays for petroleum exploration in the Jurassic succession include truncation at the breakup unconformity sealed by post-breakup shale, and tilted fault blocks sealed by intraformational shale. Plays in the post-breakup succession include stratigraphic traps and minor rollover structures.


1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
I.G. Percival ◽  
P.M. Cooney

Esso's recent drilling program in the Merlinleigh Sub-basin, onshore Carnarvon Basin, represents the culmination of the first phase of concerted exploration activity in the area since the WAPET era of the 1960s. The region is unusual among Australian petroleum provinces in having excellent exposures of reservoir, source and seal rocks of Palaeozoic age. While both Esso wells (Burna 1 and Gascoyne 1) failed to encounter hydrocarbons in the primary Wooramel Group play, encouraging potential still exists. The reservoir in the Wooramel Group play is the Early Permian Moogooloo Sandstone, a fluviodeltaic to nearshore sheet-sand facies with porosities to 23 per cent and permeabilities in excess of 100 millidarcys. Likely hydrocarbon sources are siltstones in the overlying Byro Group, with total organic carbon contents averaging 3 per cent, and calcilutites in the subjacent Callytharra Formation with similar organic content. Locally, the Jimba Jimba Calcarenite Member (Billidee Formation) and the Cordalia Sandstone also provide rich source units. The least certain aspects of the Early Permian play are fault and top seal, and reservoir quality at depth. Notwithstanding the relatively shallow depths to source strata in the area, vitrinite reflectance analyses from drill cores indicate that maturation is attained as shallow as 900 m on the folded and faulted western margin of the sub-basin, and at an approximate depth of 1200 m in the depocentre beneath the Kennedy Range. This can be related to high regional heat flow, and to erosion of some 1500-2000 m of sediments prior to the regional Early Cretaceous transgression.Older plays which have been identified in the area remain to be adequately evaluated. Potential reservoir sands are present in the Silurian Tumblagooda Sandstone, the Middle and Late Devonian Nannyarra and Munabia Sandstones, and the Early Carboniferous Williambury Formation. Possible source rocks include carbonates of Middle Devonian and Early Carboniferous age. One of the objects of current research has been to locate areas where seal, provided by the glacigene Lyons Formation of Late Carboniferous-Early Permian age, is sufficiently thin to permit economic drilling.


Author(s):  
Jesper Kresten Nielsen ◽  
Mikael Pedersen

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Kresten Nielsen, J., & Pedersen, M. (1998). Hydrothermal activity in the Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation of central East Greenland – a study of sulphide morphotypes. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 180, 81-87. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v180.5090 _______________ Bituminous shales of the Ravnefjeld Formation were deposited in the subsiding East Greenland basin during the Upper Permian. The shales are exposed from Jameson Land in the south (71°N; Fig. 1) to Clavering Ø in the north (74°20′N) and have attracted considerable attention due to their high potential as hydrocarbon source rocks (Piasecki & Stemmerik 1991; Scholle et al. 1991; Christiansen et al. 1992, 1993a, b). Furthermore, enrichment of lead, zinc and copper has been known in the Ravnefjeld Formation on Wegener Halvø since 1968 (Lehnert-Thiel 1968; Fig. 1). This mineralisation was assumed to be of primary or early diagenetic origin due to similarities with the central European Kupferschiefer (Harpøth et al. 1986). Later studies, however, suggested base metal mineralisation in the immediately underlying carbonate reefs to be Tertiary in age (Stemmerik 1991). Due to geographical coincidence between the two types of mineralisation, a common history is a likely assumption, but a timing paradox exists. A part of the TUPOLAR project on the ‘Resources of the sedimentary basins of North and East Greenland’ has been dedicated to re-investigation of the mineralisation in the Ravnefjeld Formation in order to determine the genesis of the mineralisation and whether or not primary or early diagenetic base metal enrichment has taken place on Wegener Halvø, possibly in relation to an early period of hydrothermal activity. One approach to this is to study the various sulphides in the Ravnefjeld Formation; this is carried out in close co-operation with a current Ph.D. project at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Diagenetically formed pyrite is a common constituent of marine shales and the study of pyrite morphotypes has previously been successful from thermalli immature parts of elucidating depositional environment and thermal effects in the Alum Shale Formation of Scandinavia (Nielsen 1996; Nielsen et al. 1998). The present paper describes the preliminary results of a similar study on pyrite from thermally immature parts of the Ravnefjeld Formation which, combined with the study of textures of base metal sulphides in the Wegener Halvø area (Fig. 1), may provide an important step in the evaluation of the presence or absence of early thermal activity on (or below) the Upper Permian sea floor.


Author(s):  
Lars Stemmerik ◽  
Gregers Dam ◽  
Nanna Noe-Nygaard ◽  
Stefan Piasecki ◽  
Finn Surlyk

NOTE: This article was published in a former series of GEUS Bulletin. Please use the original series name when citing this article, for example: Stemmerik, L., Dam, G., Noe-Nygaard, N., Piasecki, S., & Surlyk, F. (1998). Sequence stratigraphy of source and reservoir rocks in the Upper Permian and Jurassic of Jameson Land, East Greenland. Geology of Greenland Survey Bulletin, 180, 43-54. https://doi.org/10.34194/ggub.v180.5085 _______________ Approximately half of the hydrocarbons discovered in the North Atlantic petroleum provinces are found in sandstones of latest Triassic – Jurassic age with the Middle Jurassic Brent Group, and its correlatives, being the economically most important reservoir unit accounting for approximately 25% of the reserves. Hydrocarbons in these reservoirs are generated mainly from the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay and its correlatives with additional contributions from Middle Jurassic coal, Lower Jurassic marine shales and Devonian lacustrine shales. Equivalents to these deeply buried rocks crop out in the well-exposed sedimentary basins of East Greenland where more detailed studies are possible and these basins are frequently used for analogue studies (Fig. 1). Investigations in East Greenland have documented four major organic-rich shale units which are potential source rocks for hydrocarbons. They include marine shales of the Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation (Fig. 2), the Middle Jurassic Sortehat Formation and the Upper Jurassic Hareelv Formation (Fig. 4) and lacustrine shales of the uppermost Triassic – lowermost Jurassic Kap Stewart Group (Fig. 3; Surlyk et al. 1986b; Dam & Christiansen 1990; Christiansen et al. 1992, 1993; Dam et al. 1995; Krabbe 1996). Potential reservoir units include Upper Permian shallow marine platform and build-up carbonates of the Wegener Halvø Formation, lacustrine sandstones of the Rhaetian–Sinemurian Kap Stewart Group and marine sandstones of the Pliensbachian–Aalenian Neill Klinter Group, the Upper Bajocian – Callovian Pelion Formation and Upper Oxfordian – Kimmeridgian Hareelv Formation (Figs 2–4; Christiansen et al. 1992). The Jurassic sandstones of Jameson Land are well known as excellent analogues for hydrocarbon reservoirs in the northern North Sea and offshore mid-Norway. The best documented examples are the turbidite sands of the Hareelv Formation as an analogue for the Magnus oil field and the many Paleogene oil and gas fields, the shallow marine Pelion Formation as an analogue for the Brent Group in the Viking Graben and correlative Garn Group of the Norwegian Shelf, the Neill Klinter Group as an analogue for the Tilje, Ror, Ile and Not Formations and the Kap Stewart Group for the Åre Formation (Surlyk 1987, 1991; Dam & Surlyk 1995; Dam et al. 1995; Surlyk & Noe-Nygaard 1995; Engkilde & Surlyk in press). The presence of pre-Late Jurassic source rocks in Jameson Land suggests the presence of correlative source rocks offshore mid-Norway where the Upper Jurassic source rocks are not sufficiently deeply buried to generate hydrocarbons. The Upper Permian Ravnefjeld Formation in particular provides a useful source rock analogue both there and in more distant areas such as the Barents Sea. The present paper is a summary of a research project supported by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy (Piasecki et al. 1994). The aim of the project is to improve our understanding of the distribution of source and reservoir rocks by the application of sequence stratigraphy to the basin analysis. We have focused on the Upper Permian and uppermost Triassic– Jurassic successions where the presence of source and reservoir rocks are well documented from previous studies. Field work during the summer of 1993 included biostratigraphic, sedimentological and sequence stratigraphic studies of selected time slices and was supplemented by drilling of 11 shallow cores (Piasecki et al. 1994). The results so far arising from this work are collected in Piasecki et al. (1997), and the present summary highlights the petroleum-related implications.


2021 ◽  
pp. M57-2021-15
Author(s):  
E. V. Deev ◽  
G. G. Shemin ◽  
V. A. Vernikovsky ◽  
O. I. Bostrikov ◽  
P. A. Glazyrin ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Yenisei-Khatanga Composite Tectono-Sedimentary Element (YKh CTSE) is located between the Siberian Craton and the Taimyr-Severnaya Zemlya fold-and-thrust belt. The total thickness of the Mesoproterozoic-Cenozoic sediments of YKh CTSE reaches 20 to 25 km. They are divided into four tectono-sedimentary elements (TSE): (i) Mesoproterozoic-early Carboniferous Siberian Craton continental margin, (ii) middle Carboniferous-Middle Triassic syn-orogenic Taimyr foreland basin, (iii) late Permian-Early Triassic syn-rift, and (iv) Triassic-Early Paleocene post-rift. The last one is the most important in terms of its petroleum potential and is the most drilled part of the CTSE. Its thickness accounts for half of the total thickness of YKh CTSE. The margins of the post-rift TSE and the inner system of inversion swells and adjacent troughs and depressions were shaped by three tectonic events: (i) middle Carboniferous-Middle Triassic Taimyr orogeny, (ii) Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Verkhoyansk orogeny, (iii) Late Cenozoic uplift. These processes led to more intense migration of hydrocarbons, the trap formation and their infill with hydrocarbons. Triassic, Jurassic, and Lower Cretaceous source rocks are mostly gas-prone, and among 20 discovered fields in Jurassic and Cretaceous plays, 17 are gas or mixed-type fields.


1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
J M Beggs

New Zealand's scientific institutions have been restructured so as to be more responsive to the needs of the economy. Exploration for and development of oil and gas resources depend heavily on the geological sciences. In New Zealand, these activities are favoured by a comprehensive, open-file database of the results of previous work, and by a historically publicly funded, in-depth knowledge base of the extensive sedimentary basins. This expertise is now only partially funded by government research contracts, and increasingly undertakes contract work in a range of scientific services to the upstream petroleum sector, both in New Zealand and overseas. By aligning government-funded research programmes with the industry's knowledge needs, there is maximum advantage in improving the understanding of the occurrence of oil and gas resources. A Crown Research Institute can serve as an interface between advances in fundamental geological sciences, and the practical needs of the industry. Current publicly funded programmes of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences include a series of regional basin studies, nearing completion; and multi-disciplinary team studies related to the various elements of the petroleum systems of New Zealand: source rocks and their maturation, migration and entrapment as a function of basin structure and tectonics, and the distribution and configuration of reservoir systems.


1987 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
C Marcussen ◽  
F.G Christiansen ◽  
P.-H Larsen ◽  
H Olsen ◽  
S Piasecki ◽  
...  

A study of the onshore hydrocarbon potential of central and northem East Greenland was initiated in 1986. Field work was carried out from early July to mid August covering the region between Kong Oscar Fjord and Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord (fig. 1). In 1987 field activities will continue further to the north, eventually reaching Danmarkshavn (77°N). The programme is a continuation of the 1982-83 investigations in Jameson Land (Surlyk, 1983; Surlyk et al., 1984a) and is part of a regional programme comprising petroleum geological studies of all sedimentary basins in Greenland (Larsen & Marcussen, 1985; Larsen, 1986). The aim of the two-year field study followed by laboratory analyses is: (1) to study the presence and distribution of potential hydrocarbon source rocks in the region; (2) to evaluate the thermal history and maturity pattern of the region including the thermal effect of Tertiary intrusions and volcanics; (3) to make a stratigraphic, sedimentological and tectonic study of the region with special emphasis on subsidence history, reservoir formation and potential hydrocarbon traps.


The Rock–Eval pyrolysis and LECO analysis for 9 shale and 12 coal samples, as well as, geostatistical analysis have been used to investigate source rock characteristics, correlation between the assessed parameters (QI, BI, S1, S2, S3, HI, S1 + S2, OI, PI, TOC) and the impact of changes in the Tmax on the assessed parameters in the Cretaceous Sokoto, Anambra Basins and Middle Benue Trough of northwestern, southeastern and northcentral Nigeria respectively. The geochemical results point that about 97% of the samples have TOC values greater than the minimum limit value (0.5 wt %) required to induce hydrocarbon generation from source rocks. Meanwhile, the Dukamaje and Taloka shales and Lafia/Obi coal are found to be fair to good source rock for oil generation with slightly higher thermal maturation. The source rocks are generally immature through sub-mature to marginal mature with respect to the oil and gas window, while the potential source rocks from the Anambra Basin are generally sub-mature grading to mature within the oil window. The analyzed data were approached statistically to find some relations such as factors, and clusters concerning the examination of the source rocks. These factors were categorized into type of organic matter and organic richness, thermal maturity and hydrocarbon potency. In addendum, cluster analysis separated the source rocks in the study area into two groups. The source rocks characterized by HI >240 (mg/g), TOC from 58.89 to 66.43 wt %, S1 from 2.01 to 2.54 (mg/g) and S2 from 148.94 to 162.52 (mg/g) indicating good to excellent source rocks with kerogen of type II and type III and are capable of generating oil and gas. Followed by the Source rocks characterized by HI <240 (mg/g), TOC from 0.94 to 36.12 wt%, S1 from 0.14 to 0.72 (mg/g) and S2 from 0.14 to 20.38 (mg/g) indicating poor to good source rocks with kerogen of type III and are capable of generating gas. Howeverr, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis shows a significant positive correlation between TOC and S1, S2 and HI and no correlation between TOC and Tmax, highly negative correlation between TOC and OI and no correlation between Tmax and HI. Keywords- Cretaceous, Geochemical, Statistical, Cluster; Factor analyses.


1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 388-417

The Paleogene chapter of Svalbard history is a quite distinct one. It begins with an unconformity, albeit a sub-parallel one representing a late Cretaceous hiatus. Resting on Albian and older strata, the Van Mijenfjorden Group of six formations totals a thickness of about 2500 m in the Central Basin of Spitsbergen. The outcrop is ringed by Early Cretaceous strata in a broad syncline (Fig. 20.1). The strata are largely non-marine, coal-bearing sandstones, with interbedded marine shales and they range in age through Paleocene and Eocene.From latest Paleocene through Eocene time the West Spitsbergen Orogeny caused (Spitsbergian) deformation along the western border of the Central Basin, but it is most conspicuous in the folding and thrusting of Carboniferous through Early Cretaceous rocks. The orogen extended westwards to and beyond the western coast of central and southern Spitsbergen including Precambrian and Early Paleozoic rocks, which had already been involved in earlier tectogenesis. The eastward-verging thrusting extended beneath the Tertiary basin and reactivated older faults to the east.In the wider context Svalbard, adjacent to the north coast of Greenland, had been an integral part of Pangea from Carboniferous through Cretaceous time. The northward extension of the Atlantic opening reached and initiated the spreading of the Arctic Eurasia Basin at the beginning of the Paleogene Period. This led to the separation of Svalbard together with the Barents Shelf and northern Europe from Greenland by dextral strike-slip transform faulting. In the course of this progression, oblique collision between northeast Greenland and Svalbard caused


1993 ◽  
Vol 57 (388) ◽  
pp. 423-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Seccombe ◽  
J. Ju ◽  
A. S. Andrew ◽  
B. L. Gulson ◽  
K. J. Mizon

AbstractThe Hill goldfield, NSW, Australia, is an example of a syntectonic, slate-belt gold deposit formed in a multiply deformed, Late Silurian slate-metagreywacke turbidite sequence. Gold is confined to bedding-parallel veins and discordant leader veins composed of as many as four generations of quartz, accompanied by phyllosilicates, carbonates and minor sulphides. Vein formation and gold deposition was apparently synchronous with Early Carboniferous metamorphism and deformation. Homogenisation temperatures (Th) for fluid inclusions in vein quartz demonstrate five groupings in the temperature intervals 350-280°C 280-250°C 250-190°C 190-150°C and 150-110°C corresponding to a variety of primary and secondary inclusions developed during four periods of vein quartz deposition under a generally declining temperature regime. Inclusion fluids are characterised by a low salinity of around 0.1 to 3.6 wt. % NaCl equivalent. The dominant gas phase present in the inclusion fluids varies from N2 in the early stages of the paragenesis, through CH 4 during the main episode of gold deposition, to CO2- rich fluids associated with late-stage mineralisation. δ18O values for vein quartz (range 15.1-17.1‰) and vein carbonate (range 11.3-13.4‰) are typical of metamorphic mineralisation. δD composition of hydrous minerals and inclusion fluids (range −53 to −138‰) suggest an influx of meteoric water in the later mineralising fluids. This conclusion is supported by δ13C data for vein calcite (range −2.5 to −9.7%0). δ34S composition of vein pyrrhotite and pyrite ranges from 6.9 to 7.8‰ early in the paragenesis, to lighter values (around 4.2 to 5.8%0) accompanying late gold deposition from more oxidising fluids. Sulphur isotope data imply a sulphur source from underlying turbidites and an increase in fluid oxidation state during mineralisation . Lead isotope measurements on vein pyrite, arseno py rite, galena and gold are characterised by two isotope populations with 207Pb/206Pb ratios of 0.862 and 0.860, which define two discrete mineralising events during vein formation. Consistency between data from vein minerals and lead isotope signatures for potential source rocks indicate that lead was derived from the sedimentary pile.


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