Fracturing and Porosity Channeling in Fluid Overpressure Zones in the Shallow Earth’s Crust

At the time of energy transition, it is important to be able to predict the effects of fluid overpressures in different geological scenarios as these can lead to the development of hydrofractures and dilating high-porosity zones. In order to develop an understanding of the complexity of the resulting effective stress fields, fracture and failure patterns, and potential fluid drainage, we study the process with a dynamic hydromechanical numerical model. The model simulates the evolution of fluid pressure buildup, fracturing, and the dynamic interaction between solid and fluid. Three different scenarios are explored: fluid pressure buildup in a sedimentary basin, in a vertical zone, and in a horizontal layer that may be partly offset by a fault. Our results show that the geometry of the area where fluid pressure is successively increased has a first-order control on the developing pattern of porosity changes, on fracturing, and on the absolute fluid pressures that sustained without failure. If the fluid overpressure develops in the whole model, the effective differential and mean stress approach zero and the vertical and horizontal effective principal stresses flip in orientation. The resulting fractures develop under high lithostatic fluid overpressure and are aligned semihorizontally, and consequently, a hydraulic breccia forms. If the area of high fluid pressure buildup is confined in a vertical zone, the effective mean stress decreases while the differential stress remains almost constant and failure takes place in extensional and shear modes at a much lower fluid overpressure. A horizontal fluid pressurized layer that is offset shows a complex system of effective stress evolution with the layer fracturing initially at the location of the offset followed by hydraulic breccia development within the layer. All simulations show a phase transition in the porosity where an initially random porosity reduces its symmetry and forms a static porosity wave with an internal dilating zone and the presence of dynamic porosity channels within this zone. Our results show that patterns of fractures, hence fluid release, that form due to high fluid overpressures can only be successfully predicted if the geometry of the geological system is known, including the fluid overpressure source and the position of seals and faults that offset source layers and seals.

Direct evidence for fluid overpressure during hydrocarbon generation and expulsion from organic-rich shales

Fluid overpressures are widely expected during hydrocarbon generation and expulsion from source rocks, yet direct evidence for this phenomenon is lacking in the case of organic-rich shales. Here we show that formation of bed-parallel fibrous calcite veins in mature laminated organic-rich shales in the Eocene Dongying depression, Bohai Bay Basin, east China, occurred in direct response to fluid overpressure due to hydrocarbon generation. The evidence for overpressure is recorded by coexisting primary aqueous and petroleum inclusions in the calcite fibers. Our results show that all analyzed fluid-inclusion assemblages record variable degrees of overpressure during vein dilation, ranging from only modestly in excess of hydrostatic, to approaching and perhaps exceeding lithostatic. Thus, our results indicate that fluid pressures during dilation of horizontal veins are not necessarily equal to the opposing force of overburden throughout the history of opening. This suggests that at least some of the vein dilation is accommodated by concomitant narrowing of the adjacent wall-rock laminae, likely by scavenging (dissolution and reprecipitation) of CaCO3 from the adjacent wall rock.