| ABSTRACT
Mathematical modeling and fluid
inclusion data analysis are used to reconstruct the petroleum hydrogeology
of the Australian Cooper and Eromanga basins. Our analysis focuses on the
development of topography- and compaction-driven groundwater flow systems
and their role in heat redistribution, petroleum generation, and oil and
brine migration during basin evolution. Finite-element models of basin
transport processes are constructed along northeast-southwest (AA´)
and northwest-southeast (BB´)
cross sections that generally follow the
present-day groundwater flow patterns through
these basins. Numerical results are presented in the
©Copyright
1997. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved. 1Manuscript
received September 19, 1995; revised manuscript received July 3, 1996;
final acceptance November 11, 1996.
2Independent
Consultant, 12 Rinzee Road, Dracut, Massachusetts 01826.
3CSIRO
Division of Petroleum Exploration, 51 Delhi Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113,
Australia.
4Department
of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Drive
SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (E-mail: mperson@
darcy.geo.umn.edu)
5GZA
GeoEnvironmental Inc., 380 Harvey Road, Manchester, New Hampshire 03103.
6Santos
Ltd., 101 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, SA 7000, Australia.
This
research is supported by a grant from the Petroleum Research Fund, administered
by the American Chemical Society, PRF 24184-AC8. We would also like to
acknowledge the Orpha and George Gibson Hydrogeology Endowment and the
McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program at the University of Minnesota.
We thank the CSIRO Division of Exploration Geosciences for providing support
for travel costs within Australia. Data provided by Santos Ltd. and the
Department of Mines and Energy, South Australia, are also gratefully acknowledged.
Computational work performed on this project was done at the Gibson Computational
Hydrogeology Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, which is supported
by the National Science Foundation under EAR 94-05807. Special thanks go
to M. A. Habermehl of the Australian Geological Survey Organization, David
Gravestock of the South Australia Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources,
and Mike Congreves of Santos Ltd. for their assistance on interpreting
the petroleum geology and hydrogeology of the Cooper and Eromanga basins.
The review comments of Joseph Tóth, Stefan Bachu, and Michelle Walvoord,
as well as discussions with Ward Sanford, greatly improved the quality
of this manuscript. Three-dimensional model results presented in this paper
are available in animated form on VHS videocassette and can be obtained
by contacting Mark Person at the address listed for him as the corresponding
author. |
