Abstract
Heterogeneity is one of the most complex problems in subsurface formations, and it is ubiquitous in many geoscience disciplines. Fluid storage and flow in porous media are governed by a variety of geological and petrophysical variables, including structure, stratigraphy, facies, lithology, porosity, and permeability. These variables all contribute to subsurface heterogeneities and have different scales, often in a hierarchical scheme.
Although this book is more focused on quantitative analyses of geospatial properties, this chapter introduces several topics on descriptive and (semi)quantitative analyses of geological and petrophysical variables, mainly regarding their scales and heterogeneities. These will provide a foundation for more quantitative analysis in other chapters.
There is no absolute scale of size in the Universe, for it is boundless towards the great and also boundless towards the small.
Oliver Heaviside
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Appendices
Appendices
1.1 Appendix 8.1 Large-Scale Tectonic Settings and their Characteristics
Stress/strain field | Contraction with deep, basement-involved thick packages | Contraction with shallow, moderate-thick packages | Extension with deep, basement-involved thick packages | Extension with shallow, moderate-thick packages | Strike-slip | Lateral flow of mobile substrate |
Setting | Foreland cratonic uplifts | Accretionary wedge, passive margin slope or foreland fold belts | Rifts | Passive margin | Rifts, plate margins and tear faults | Accretionary wedge, passive margin or delta |
Delta slope | ||||||
Faults | Deeply penetrating steep faults, block-faulted arrays, dogleg fault networks | Imbricate thrust arrays, tear faults and relays, | Deeply penetrating steep faults, block-faulted arrays, dogleg fault networks | Listric, tear faults, growth faults | Deeply penetrating steep faults, faults en echelon, horse-tail splays, listric tear faults | Listric growth faults, folded faults, crestal grabens |
Folds | Broad uplifts, drape folds, monoclines | Fault-bend folds, detachment folds, relay ramp folds | Broad uplifts, drape folds, monoclines | Rollovers, fault-bend folds | En echelon folds, positive flower structures, fault-bend folds, rollovers | Pillows, turtles, domes, detachment, monoclines |
Strata | Deformed upper strata regionally, low to moderate shortening | Vertical duplication of strata, extensive shortening | Deformed lower strata regionally, low to moderate extension | Missing vertical strata, large extension | Offsets of markers, fault-throw reversals along strike | Strata interruptions, diapirs |
Reservoir traps | Broad anticlines, fault closures | Faulted anticlines, stacked anticlines | Tilted fault blocks, horsts, fault closures, strata traps | Rollovers fault closures | Fault closures along flanks of flowers, rollovers, faulted folds, fault blocks | Flank monoclines, domes, strata traps |
1.2 Appendix 8.2 Sequence Stratigraphic Hierarchy in Fluvial Setting
A sequence stratigraphic analysis can use either a top-down classification or a bottom-up classification of hierarchical stratigraphic elements and facies. Brookfield (1977) subdivided sedimentary formations using hierarchical order and surface boundaries. Allen (1983) described braided-stream fluviatile systems while recognizing eight geometrical shapes with specific lithologies and fabrics that were termed architectural elements. Miall (1985) extended architectural elements to other fluvial depositional systems. Pickering and Corregidor (2000) subdivided deepwater sedimentary bodies, recognizing a hierarchy of enveloping boundaries that separated genetically related stratigraphic architectural elements. The application of the concepts of architectural elements is now widely used for many depositional systems.
Sprague et al. (2002, 2005) used a top-down hierarchical classification of architectural elements for fluvial and deepwater settings that starts at a sedimentary basin scale. Successive downward subdivisions of the large-scale depositional systems form a series of elements that includes the channel complex systems, downward to channel complex sets, to channel complexes, to laminae (sometimes even to individual sand grains). This top-down classification is used to provide a framework for studies of the multiscale aspect of hierarchical stratigraphic elements and interrelated large-scale architectural elements and small-scale architectural elements. A bottom-up approach is equally valid, as shown by Kendall (2012) for fluvial settings (Fig. 8.16).
Fluvial architectural hierarchy. (From Sprague et al. 2002; Kendall 2012; sepmstrata.org)
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Ma, Y.Z. (2019). Multiscale Heterogeneities in Reservoir Geology and Petrophysical Properties. In: Quantitative Geosciences: Data Analytics, Geostatistics, Reservoir Characterization and Modeling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17860-4_8
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