Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 177-186, 1981

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

HYDRODYNAMICS--DOES IT TRAP OIL?*

Kinji Magara**

*Published by authorisation of the Director, Bureau of Economic Geology. The University of Texas at Austin, USA

**Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin. Austin, Texas 78712, USA.

Abstract

In order for the hydrodynamics of meteoric water to be an important trapping mechanism for hydrocarbon accumulations, it must have existed for a long geologic period extending from the time of secondary hydrocarbon migration and its accumulation to the present time. However, in most interior sedimentary basins, the present hydrodynamic patterns are considered to have been developed only a short while ago (geologically speaking), after the significant uplift and the associated erosional events which caused the present topographical relief. Most petroleum accumulations were probably formed a long time before the development of the present hydrodynamic flow patterns, and hence must be explained by different mechanisms that have been effective for a much longer geologic period.