Widespread natural methane and oil leakage from sub-marine Arctic reservoirs

Parceling the anthropogenic and natural (geological) sources of fossil methane in the atmosphere remains problematic due to a lack of distinctive chemical markers for their discrimination. In this light, understanding the distribution and contribution of potential geological methane sources is important. We present empirical observations of hitherto undocumented, widespread and extensive methane and oil release from geological reservoirs to the Arctic Ocean. Methane fluxes from >7,000 seeps significantly deplete in seawater, but nevertheless reach the sea surface and may transfer to the air. Oil slick emission spots and gas ebullition are persistent across multi-year observations and correlate to formerly glaciated geological structures, which have experienced km-scale glacial erosion that has left hydrocarbon reservoirs partially uncapped since the last deglaciation ~15,000 years ago. Such persistent, geologically controlled, natural hydrocarbon release may be characteristic of formerly glaciated hydrocarbon-bearing basins which are common across polar continental shelves, and could represent an underestimated source of natural fossil methane within the global carbon cycle.

Comparison of 3D, 2D, and 1D Magnetotelluric Inversion Results on the Example of Data from Fore-Sudetic Monocline

This study’s main objective is to better define and understand results for the most commonly used inversion algorithms in magnetotelluric data interpretation as part of geological exploration of the region of the Dolsk fault and the Odra fault. The data obtained from the eastern part of Fore-Sudetic Monocline measurements were used to describe the boundaries of lithospheric blocks (terranes) and recognize their origin. The magnetotelluric (MT) soundings were carried out to achieve this goal. There were conducted 51 soundings on five quasiparallel profiles. That allows constructing a quasiregular mesh in the area of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline. This arrangement of the measuring grid allowed reducing the influence of the largest sources of disturbances on MT data. 1D and 2D models were created by using the inverse algorithms. The models were prepared for each profile separately. Further, parallel (ModEM) 3D inversion codes were applied. The area where the investigation was done involves the region of the Dolsk fault and the Odra fault. These zones are essential geologic borders of a regional nature, and they pull apart the crust blocks with different origins. It was vitally needed to correctly identify the crust and upper mantle structure around a part of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline. The paper shows how these key features of the geological structures are revealed using 1D, 2D, and 3D algorithms.

Scenario Expression Method for Regional Geological Structures

Knowing the GIS expression of geological phenomena is an important basis for the combination of geology and GIS. Regional geological structures include folds, faults, strata, rocks, and other typical geological phenomena and are the focus of geological GIS research. However, existing research on the GIS expression of regional geological structure focuses on the expression of the spatial and attribute characteristics of geological structures, and our knowledge of the expression of the semantic, relationship, and evolution processes of geological structures is not comprehensive. In this paper, a regional geological structure scene expression model with the semantic terms positional accuracy, geometric shape, relationship type, attribute type, and time-type attributes and operations is proposed. A regional geological structure scenario markup language (RGSSML) and a method for mapping it with graphics are designed to store and graphically express regional geological structure information. According to the geological time scale, a temporal reference coordinate system is defined to dynamically express the evolution of regional geological structures. Based on the dynamic division of the time dimension of regional geological structures, the expression method of “time dimension + space structure” for the regional geological structure evolution process is designed based on the temporal model. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the regional geological structure scene expression method proposed in this paper is verified using the Ningzhen Mountain (Nanjing section) as an example. The research results show that the regional geological structure scene expression method designed in this paper has the following characteristics: (1) It can comprehensively express the spatial characteristics, attribute characteristics, semantics, relationships, and evolution processes of regional geological structures; (2) it can be used to realize formalized expression and unified storage of regional geological information; and (3) it can be used to realize dynamic expression of the regional geological structure evolution process. Moreover, it has significant advantages for the expression of regional geological structure semantics, relationships, and evolution processes. This study improves our knowledge of the GIS expression of regional geological structures and is expected to further promote the combination and development of geology and GIS.

Application of magnetic method to characterize Abaya campus building site, Southern Ethiopia

A geophysical survey involving magnetic method is conducted using ENVI-MAG proton precision magnetometer. The study is carried out with the aim of identifying the possible geological structures which may responsible for the failure of engineering structures. Three traverses having east –west orientation with a ten meters profile spacing and a readings station spacing and one traverse across the three traverses and randomly collected magnetic data were used. At each station three readings were taken and averaged out in order to increase the accuracy of data and diurnal and geomagnetic corrections were made. With the corrected data different anomalous maps were produced like total magnetic field anomaly map, residual magnetic anomaly map and analytical signal map using Oasis montaji6.4 software for further interpretation. The result of this research has shown that the area is affected by different geological structures which may be the cause for the crack and the failure of the building in the area.

Tectonic aspects of super-viscous oil deposits formation and placement within the Volga-Ural anteclise

The article discusses the tectonics and developmental features of the Volga-Ural anteclise during the Baikalian, Caledonian, Hercynian and Alpine tectogenesis cycles. In this paper, particular attention is paid to stages and directional development during the evolution of geological structures. The main factors of the formation and destruction of Permian viscous oil and natural bitumen reservoirs are presented in the provisions of oil ontogenesis. It was noted the cyclical nature of these phenomena. Keywords: Volga-Ural anteclise; super-viscous oil; tectonic; reservoir; oil.

Review of the Geology of the Arun-Tamor Region, Eastern Nepal: Present Understndings, Controversies and Research Gaps

Systematic study of the eastern Nepal Himalaya was started after 1950 when Nepal opened up for foreigners. Thereafter, several geological studies have been carried out in the Arun-Tamor region of eastern Nepal Himalaya. The Tibetan-Tethys sedimentary sequence, the Higher Himalayan amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphic crystalline sequence, the Lesser Himalayan sedimentary and greenschist facies metasedimentary sequences, and the Siwalik foreland molassic sedimentary sequence are the four major tectonic units of this area. The individual nomenclature schemes of stratigraphic units, the correlational dispute, the positions and interpretations of regional geological structures are some examples that have created controversies regarding the lithostratigraphy and structural arrangements. The difference in age and genesis of the Main Central Thrust and its effects in the metamorphism of the eastern Nepal Himalaya are the exemplification of the contradiction in the interpretation of the tectonometamorphic history. There is a gap in research in the tectonics and episodic metamorphic evolution of the area owing to the bare approach in the microstructural and geochronological investigation. Future investigations should be focused on solving the above mentioned controversies and narrowing down the research gaps in tectonic and metamorphic evolution.

THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE EFFECTS ON SLOPES STABILITY AND TUNNELS OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS AT POBOYA GOLD MINE PALU

Poboya area has many geological structures that result in distribution of strength and stress of rocks not evenly distributed, as a result, the rock mass strength becomes disturbed and slopes become unstable. The objective of the study was to determine the geological structure effect on slope stability and tunnel conditions on metamorphic rocks at the Poboya gold mine. The study was conducted in the Mantikulore sub-district, Palu, Central Sulawesi. Lithology composing study area is metamorphic rocks consisting of gneiss and schist, therefore, the analysis was carried out on both locations which have many geological structures. Numerical analysis was performed applying the finite element method with the RS2 program assistance. The findings show that the safety factor value of the existing slope at gneiss and schist location under static loading is 4.6 and 2.72, if there is an earthquake it becomes 1.07 and 0.77. The safety factor value under static loading with the joint is 4.58 and 2.03, while under dynamic loading with joint, it becomes 0.94 and 0.64. The geological structure effect which represented by the joint gave a big impact with a decrease of safety factor at gneiss about 0.43% under static loading and 80% under dynamic loading. Meanwhile, at schist, safety factor decreased 25% under static loading and 76% under dynamic loading. For tunnel stability, the existence of joint will increase the displacement of 65% at gneiss under static loading and 84% under dynamic loading, while at schist, it increases 25% under static loading and 54% under dynamic loading. This illustrates that geological structures under dynamic loading affect significantly slope stability of Poboya gold mine.

Numerical procedure to effectively assess sequestration capacity of geological structures

The paper presents a numerical procedure of estimating the sequestration capacity of an underground geological structure as a potential sequestration site. The procedure adopts a reservoir simulation model of the structure and performs multiple simulation runs of the sequestration process on the model according to a pre-defined optimization scheme. It aims at finding the optimum injection schedule for existing and/or planned injection wells. Constraints to be met for identifying the sequestration capacity of the structure include a no-leakage operation for an elongated period of the sequestration performance that contains a relaxation phase in addition to the injection one. The leakage risk analysis includes three basic leakage pathways: leakage to the overburden of a storage formation, leakage beyond the structural trap boundary, leakage via induced fractures. The procedure is implemented as a dedicated script of the broadly used Petrel package and tested on an example of a synthetic geologic structure. The script performs all the tasks of the procedure flowchart including: input data definitions, simulation model initialization, iteration loops control, simulation launching, simulation results processing and analysis. Results of the procedure are discussed in detail with focus put on various leakage mechanisms and their handling in the adopted scheme. The overall results of the proposed procedure seem to confirm its usefulness and effectiveness as a numerical tool to facilitate estimation of the sequestration capacity of an underground geological structure. In addition, by studying details of the procedure runs and its intermediate results, it may be also very useful for the estimation of various leakage risks.

Estimating the Extreme Values in Gridding Data using Gauss Elimination Method: A New Approach in Potential Field Processing

The position of a maximum point of a function depends on its coefficients and order. The maximum horizontal gradient method is a popular method that greatly contributes to the detection of maximum points and approximation of geological structures edges. By adopting a mathematical logic, Blakely and Simpson established a quadratic function based on the characteristic of three points of a straight line in the fundamental directions. However, for potential field data like gravity and magnetic data, the coefficients of a quadratic function in each direction are not only dependent on the values of three points on a straight line, but also, they depend on the values of the surrounding points. This article proposes an algorithm which can detect maximum points more effectively in order to delineate geological structures boundaries from potential field data. The proposed algorithm uses a 3×3 neighborhood data grid to establish a two-variables function and to determine its coefficients by applying the Gaussian elimination method. After the two-variables function has been established, the algorithm estimates any extreme points and their positions from a set of four single-variable functions which correspond to the horizontal, vertical and the two diagonal directions by the cases x = 0, y = 0, y = -x and y = x of the main function. Finally, the conditions to detect the maximum point from the extreme points are defined. The validity of the algorithm was demonstrated on synthetic datasets generated by two different model structures. A real data application of the method has also been realized by estimating the geological boundaries by gravity data in the Vietnam’s continental shelf. The results obtained from the synthetic applications of the algorithm proved that it can determine more maximum points as compared to Blakely and Simpson method, and as a result, in all the test cases, it has drawn the real boundaries of the model structures more accurately. The application results of the method on real data revealed new boundary delineations in the research area, interpreted to be faults or fractures which lies between deep trench in the East Vietnam Sea.