Application of Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy for Delineating Mishrif Prospects in Western Onshore, Abu Dhabi, UAE

In Abu Dhabi, the Mishrif Formation is developed in the eastern and western parts conformably above the Shilaif Formation and forms several commercial discoveries. The present study was carried out to understand the development of the Mishrif Formation over a large area in western onshore Abu Dhabi and to identify possible Mishrif sweet spots as future drilling locations. To achieve this objective, seismic mapping of various reflectors below, above, and within the Mishrif Formation was attempted. From drilled wells all the available wireline data and cores were studied. Detailed seismic sequence stratigraphic analysis was carried out to understand the evolution of the Mishrif Formation and places where the good porosity-permeability development and oil accumulation might have happened. The seismic characters of the Mishrif Formation in dry and successful wells were studied and were calibrated with well data. The Mishrif Formation was deposited during Late Cretaceous Cenomanian time. In the study area it has a gross thickness ranging from 532 to 1,269 ft as derived from the drilled wells; the thickness rapidly decreases eastward toward the shelf edge and approaching the Shilaif basin. The Mishrif was divided into three third-order sequences based on core observations from seven wells and log signatures from 25 wells. The bottom-most sequence Mishrif 1.0 was identified is the thickest unit but was also found dry. The next identified sequence Mishrif 2.0 was also dry. The next and the uppermost sequence identified as Mishrif 3.0 shows a thickness from 123 to 328 ft. All the tested oil-bearing intervals lie within this sequence. This sequence was further subdivided into three fourth-order sequences based on log and core signatures; namely, Mishrif 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. In six selected seismic lines of 181 Line Km (LKM) cutting across the depositional axis, seismic sequence stratigraphic analysis was carried out. In those sections all the visible seismic reflectors were picked using a stratigraphic interpretation software. Reflector groups were made to identify lowstand systems tract, transgressive systems tract, maximum flooding surface, and highstand systems tract by tying with the observations of log and core at the wells and by seismic signature. Wheeler diagrams were generated in all these six sections to understand the lateral disposition of these events and locales of their development. Based on stratigraphic analysis, a zone with likely grainy porous facies development was identified in Mishrif 3.0. Paleotopography at the top of Mishrif was reconstructed to help delineate areas where sea-level fall generated leaching-related sweet spots. Analysis of measured permeability data identified the presence of local permeability baffles affecting the reservoir quality and hydrocarbon accumulation. This study helped to identify several drilling locations based on a generic understanding of the Mishrif Formation. Such stratigraphic techniques can be successfully applied in similar carbonate reservoirs to identify the prospect areas.

Why did they leave inscriptions about the "goat" on the walls of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev?

The paper studies seven Old Russian graffiti inscriptions made in the altar of the St. George's Chapel of the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral (No 126, 127, 851, 854, 904, 927 and 1076a). They contain a call «to give my goat» or they report about a «goat». For graffiti № 927 a new version of the reading is given, аccording to which the inscription says about the matchmaking of a goat and a ram with the participation of a demon. For this entire series of graffiti, a comparison with the existing folklore and epigraphic material is presented. A conclusion is drawn about its marital and erotic semantics. A detailed extra-stratigraphic analysis of the inscriptions is presented, the result of which is the conclusion that it is necessary to date the entire graffiti complex by the sum of its features to the end of the 13th – beginning of the 14th centuries.

The initiation of the Mesoproterozoic Bylot basins (Nunavut, Arctic Canada) as recorded in the Nyeboe Formation, Fury and Hecla Group

ABSTRACT Reconstructing Precambrian sedimentary environments over broad cratonic regions often relies on a combination of facies, structural, and provenance analyses. The Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1270–1090 Ma) Fury and Hecla Group, exposed on the Melville Peninsula and northern Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada), is considered broadly correlative with strata of the Borden, Hunting–Aston, and Thule basins (together referred to as the Bylot basins). We present the results of updated mapping and the first high-resolution sedimentologic and stratigraphic analysis of the lowermost unit in the Fury and Hecla Group, the Nyeboe Formation. The Nyeboe Formation comprises five distinct facies associations: alluvial to fluvial, eolian-backshore, marine-intertidal, marine foreshore to shoreface, and marine-offshore. Thin mafic units are interbedded within the marine shoreface facies and are interpreted to represent volcanic flows. Lateral relationships between facies associations are complex, but generally, facies associations transition from a terrestrial environment at the base to a nearshore marine environment at the top, indicating a transgression. Considering both the along-strike and -dip thickness trends, the presence of mafic volcanic rock units, and possible syndepositional fault orientations crosscutting the deposits, we infer that the Fury and Hecla Group was deposited in a regime of crustal thinning in a half-graben setting. Our results from the Nyeboe Formation suggest a lithostratigraphic correlation to the Nauyat and Adams Sound formations of the Borden Basin. Therefore, this study establishes a geodynamic link between the opening of the Fury and Hecla Basin to the other Bylot basins and contributes to the understanding of a large late Mesoproterozoic intracontinental-basin system.

Diversity and Ecology of Diatoms in Pliocene Deposits of the Tunka Valley (Baikal Rift Zone)

Fossil diatoms are an excellent tool for reconstructing the palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographic changes involving lacustrine systems. In this work, the diatom content of Pliocene sediments recovered from a core extracted in the Tunka Basin (Baikal Rift Zone, Russia) is described. Revealed by light and scanning electron microscopy, 170 species of diatoms were found. Benthic, alkaliphilic, indifferent, cosmopolitan, and oligosaprobe species predominated. Ecological, geographical, and stratigraphic analysis of diatoms showed two ecozones, differing in taxonomic diversity of species. From the data obtained, palaeoenvironmental conditions of these zone formations have been reconstructed. It was shown that during the period corresponding to sedimentation in Ecozone II, the reservoir was cooler, as suggested by the increase of arctic-alpine taxa. The absence of Baikal Pliocene endemics and the presence of local endemics in the Tunka core indicate that there was no geographical connection between the palaeolake of the Tunka Valley and Lake Baikal during the Pliocene.