Published 1994 as part of Memoir 61
Copyright © 1994 The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.   All Rights Reserved.
 

The structure, mechanisms of formation, and key role of diagenetically banded pressure seals are reviewed. A difficulty in predicting the genesis time and location of these seals is that they are apparently affected by local stresses and fluid pressures, but, in turn, they affect the basin-scale distri-bution of these factors. We show that this very formidable multiple-scale basin modeling problem can be solved via a computational homogenization technique.

Banded pressure seals are classified in two complementary ways. First we distinguish those generated through self-organization from those directly of sedimentary origin. They are then classified according to the specific processes (pressure solution, nucleation, diffusion, flow, coupled mineral reactions, and grain comminution) by which they emerge. The argument is made that feedback in the network of reaction, transport, and mechanical processes underlies the development of many diagenetic seals.

The technical problem of the need to simulate submeter-scale banding phenomena in basin-scale models is introduced and addressed. A computational homogenization scheme is shown to simultaneously capture phenomena on these two scales by treating them both in a way that preserves their characteristics. We believe that this approach is a great advance in basin modeling more generally in that it allows one to capture phenomena on multiple spatial scales arising from complex sedimentary features and their reworking through diagenesis.

The following are demonstrated by simulations carried out for pure quartz sandstones undergoing stress-induced reactions, diffusion, and fluid flow. Seals are very likely to form within finer grain beds or at some specific depth within macroscopically uniform grain-size sediments. The depth and the time needed to form a seal depend upon the intensity of overpressure, fluid flow, geothermal gradient, subsidence velocity, grain size, the sediment sequence, and tectonic environment. High overpressure or higher geothermal