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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 89, No. 5 (May 2005), P. 603-625.

Copyright copy2005. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/12200404010

Laboratory deformation of granular quartz sand: Implications for the burial of clastic rocks

Stephen L. Karner,1 Judith S. Chester,2 Frederick M. Chester,3 Andreas K. Kronenberg,4 Andrew Hajash Jr.5

1Center for Tectonophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas AampM University, College Station, Texas 77843; present address: Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Mailstop 2107, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415-2107; [email protected]
2Center for Tectonophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas AampM University, College Station, Texas 77843; [email protected]
3Center for Tectonophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas AampM University, College Station, Texas 77843; [email protected]
4Center for Tectonophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas AampM University, College Station, Texas 77843; [email protected]
5Center for Tectonophysics, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas AampM University, College Station, Texas 77843; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

We explore the influence of mechanical deformation in natural sands through experiments on water-saturated samples of quartz sand. Stresses, volumetric strain, and microseismicity (or acoustic emission, AE) rates were monitored throughout each test. Deformation of quartz sand at low stresses is accommodated by granular flow without significant grain breakage, whereas at high stresses, granulation and cataclastic flow are dominant. Sands deformed under isotropic conditions show compactive strains with an inverse power-law dependence of macroscopic crushing strength on mean grain size. Triaxial compression at high effective pressures produces compactive strain and a high AE rate associated with considerable particle-size reduction. Triaxial compression at low effective pressure produces dilatant granular flow accommodated by grain boundary frictional sliding and particle rotation. On the basis of experiment results, we predict the evolution of porosity and macroscopic yield strength as a function of depth for extensional and contractional basins. Sand strength increases linearly with depth for shallow burial, whereas for deep burial, strength decreases nonlinearly with depth. At subyield stresses, porosity evolves as a function of applied mean stress and is independent of distortional stress. Our predictions are in qualitative agreement with observations of microfracture density obtained from laboratory creep-compaction experiments and with natural sandstones of the Gulf of Mexico basin. Mechanical deformation contributes as much as a 30% increase to fluid pressure evolution, which has particular application to sedimentary systems that display zones of fluid overpressure. Furthermore, deformational strains cannot be fully recovered during uplift, erosion, and unloading of a sedimentary basin.

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