A practical approach to reconstructing burial and temperature histories: An example from the Mobil O`Connel well, Piceance Basin, Colorado
- Mobil New Exploration & Producing Ventures, Dallas, TX (United States)
The O`Connell well was drilled about five years ago as part of a deep basin, tight gas play. The well penetrates a Devonian through Paleocene age section of carbonate and clastic lithologies. Fifty-five m.y. old strata of the Wasatch Formation are exposed at the surface. A multidisciplinary empirical approach was used to determine the magnitude and timing of maximum temperature and paleogeothermal gradient, as well as uplift and erosion, independent of numerical basin modeling. Apatite fission track analysis (AFTA) indicates that 1.36 km. (4,460 ft.) of section were eroded beginning at {approx}5 Ma., which was synchronous with the timing of uplift of the Colorado Plateau. The timing of maximum temperature at {approximately}27 Ma. was determined using {sup 40}Ar/{sup 39}Ar thermochronology and was synchronous with the timing of local igneous activity and mineralization of the Colorado Mineral Belt. Maximum paleotemperatures based on %R{sub o} and pressure corrected homogenization temperatures from fluid inclusions in quartz veins are as high as 340{degrees}C (644{degrees}F), or about 100{degrees}C higher than present-day maximum temperature. Calculations of maximum paleogeothermal gradient equal {approx}52{degrees}C/km. (3.03{degrees}C/100ft.) This multiple thermal indicator approach to the analysis of cuttings and core limits the number of possible burial and thermal history scenarios, thereby reducing much of the uncertainty in basin history reconstructions.
- OSTI ID:
- 425678
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960527-; TRN: 96:004994-0316
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual convention of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Inc. and the Society for Sedimentary Geology: global exploration and geotechnology, San Diego, CA (United States), 19-22 May 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of 1996 AAPG annual convention. Volume 5; PB: 231 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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