Title:
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Fault controlled fluid flow and quartz cementation in porous sandstones
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Quartz cement is a major culprit of porosity and permeability loss in deeply buried sandstone
hydrocarbon reservoirs. A major debate is whether quartz cement is entirely internally
derived or if fluid flow and mass transfer can import silica for quartz cementation.
Two Late Jurassic normal faults are exposed within the aeolian (U. Permian) Hopeman
Sandstone, onshore within the Inner Moray Firth basin, UK North Sea. The Clashach Fault
has a throw <50m. The Burghead Fault has a throw of>100m. The faults crop out within the
Hopeman Horst on the southern margin of the 50km wide, 5km deep, half-graben basin.
Maximum burial depth of the Hopeman Sandstone within this horst block is 1.5-2.4km.
Quartz cementation is asymmetric across the fault planes. Moving through the footwall of
the Clashach Fault toward the fault plane, quartz cement volume increases from 9% at 31.7m
to a maximum of 26.5% at 13.8m from the plane. From 13.8m to 0.5m from the fault plane
authigenic quartz volume decreases from 26.5% to 4.2% at 0.5m. In this zone carbonate
cement, which later dissolved, reduced the space available for quartz precipitation. The
hanging wall contains mean 4% authigenic quartz. Porosity displays an inverse relationship
to quartz cement. Footwall porosity increases from 10% at 13.8m from the fault plane to
18.6% at 31.7m. From 13.8m-0.5m porosity varies inversely with the volume of quartz
cement in each sample. Hanging wall mean porosity is 24.5%. Footwall intergranular volume
decreases from a maximum of 32% at 13.8m to 28% at 31.7m.
At the Burghead Fault, footwall authigenic quartz volume increases moderately from 24.5%
at 13m from the fault plane to 29% at 0.5m from the fault plane. Porosity displays an
increase from 2.3% at 0.5m to 6.1% at 13m. Permeability decreases from 100-1000mD in
poorly cemented hanging wall sandstone to <1mD in extensively quartz cemented sandstones
in the footwalls of both faults. Footwall intergranular volume is consistently >30% in the
Burghead Fault footwall.
Fluid inclusions within footwall quartz overgrowths are single phase, aqueous, indicating
cement precipitation <60°C. Quartz cemented microfracture fluid inclusion trails, generated
during fault movement, contain 2-phase (L+V) aqueous inclusions with mean
homogenisation temperature of 166°C, recording the presence of hot fluids in the sandstone at
the time of faulting. Ion microprobe analysis of quartz overgrowth oxygen isotope values for
footwall cements around the Clashach Fault shows a linear increase of 8180 values with
increasing distance from the fault plane from +17.9960 at 4.2m to +20.8%o at 30.8m. In quartz
cements in the footwall of the Burghead Fault, 5180 rises from +17.53% at 0.1m from the
fault plane to a consistent range of +19.1%o to +19.596o up to 14m distant. Hanging wall
cements have a mean 6180 +23.8960 with range of 6180 +20.1ß'w to +25.09'. 0. An isotopic
profile across a single quartz cemented deformation band shows
00 is a minimum mean of
+20.7%o.
Oxygen isotope and fluid inclusion data records quartz cementation from hot basinal fluids
which entered the Hopeman Sandstone adjacent to fault planes. This fluid cooled and mixed
with Jurassic meteoric porefluids, precipitating quartz cement at a burial depth of <1.25km.
Siliceous fluids were sourced from sediment compaction following Late Jurassic extension in
the basin and were expelled up-dip toward the basin margin. Fluid flow was locally focused
through the Hopeman Horst, which acted as an exit point for regional fluid expulsion. Within
the horst block advecting fluid flow was focused into basinward footwalls by the low
permeability vertical fault planes. This was aided by an enhanced reduction in fault
permeability by quartz cementation of deformation bands at shallow burial (500m
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