About This Item
- Full TextFull Text(subscription required)
- Pay-Per-View PurchasePay-Per-View
Purchase Options Explain
Share This Item
The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
Hydraulic
fracturing
during the formation and deformation of a basin: A factor in the dewatering of low-permeability sediments
![Previous Hit](/data/images/arrow_left.gif)
![Next Hit](/data/images/arrow_right.gif)
![Previous Hit](/data/images/arrow_left.gif)
![Next Hit](/data/images/arrow_right.gif)
John W. Cosgrove1
1Earth Sciences, T. H. Huxley School, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Royal School of Mines, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]
AUTHORS
John Cosgrove is a senior lecturer in the T. H. Huxley School of the Environment, Earth Sciences, and Engineering in the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College. After obtaining his M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. from Imperial he spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at MacMaster University, Ontario, Canada, before returning to Imperial College to take up a lectureship. He is coauthor with Neville Price of a textbook, Analysis of Geological Structures, and his current research interests relate to the interplay between stress, fracture, and fluid flow in the crust.
ABSTRACT
The geological expression of hydraulic
fracturing
is varied and is controlled primarily by the magnitude of the differential stress and the intrinsic properties of the rock. The orientation and type of fractures that develop within a basin are determined by the state of stress, which in turn is controlled by the geological boundary con
ditions. During the early stages of burial and diagenesis the for
mation of
hydraulic
fractures is thought to be an important factor in the movement of fluids through and out of low-permeability, semilithified sediments. Unfortunately, these fractures are not gen
erally preserved and are presumed to heal once the fluid pressure is relieved.
The low-permeability Mercia Mudstones of the Bristol Channel Basin, southwest England, however, contain bodies of sand that, during the opening of the basin, were injected along some of the hydraulic
fractures in the mudstones, preserving them as sedimen
tary dikes and sills. Field observations indicate that fluid pressures within the Mercia Mudstones were also very high during basin in
version and that
hydraulic
fracturing
provided a transient perme
ability that relieved this excess pressure. The fractures are not visi
ble in most of the mudstones but have been preserved within evaporite-rich horizons as a network of satin spar veins. Thus, the chance preservation of the sedimentary dikes and satin spar veins shows that at different times during the evolution of the basin, flu
ids migrated through low-permeability units along transient net
works of
hydraulic
fractures. In addition, the orientation and spatial organization of these fractures reflect the boundary conditions op
erating at various stages in the basin history.
Pay-Per-View Purchase Options
The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.
Watermarked PDF Document: $14 | |
Open PDF Document: $24 |
AAPG Member?
Please login with your Member username and password.
Members of AAPG receive access to the full AAPG Bulletin Archives as part of their membership. For more information, contact the AAPG Membership Department at [email protected].