The effects of the smectite-illite transformation are incorporated into compaction and fluid mechanical models for shales by connecting the extent of this reaction to their elastic rigidity and permeability coefficents. In this way the reaction partly determines both the thermo-elastic response of a shale body and the equation of motion of its fluid phase. Computer simulation of these model equations reproduces the spectra of geopressure phenomena encountered in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

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