Carbonate Forum 2020

I will provide an overview of the current revolution in our understanding of flow, transport and reaction processes in porous media, enabled by 3D imaging from the nanometer scale upwards, micro-fluidics, and improved numerical methods. This will be illustrated by examples from work at Imperial College London on multiphase flow in rocks with application to carbon dioxide storage and oil recovery. X-rays are used to image flow processes in rocks at a spatial resolution of down to 1 micron and a time resolution between 1 and 1,000 s. These experiments can be used to measure traditional multiphase flow properties – relative permeability and capillary pressure – while providing pore-scale insight into displacement processes. We show how an accurate characterization of wettability, or the local distribution of contact angle, enables us to understand flow and trapping, and explain the circumstances which are optimal for storage or recovery applications. The experiments also provide a wealth of data to calibrate and validate pore-to-core scale flow and transport models.

The chemical composition and redox state of seawater is intimately linked to Earth’s crustal evolution, climate history and changing biosphere, all of which have evolved considerably through Earth’s history. Lawrence Hardie in his 1996 paper (Geology, 24, p. 279-283) observed that “the major ion chemistry of seawater has changed significantly back through geologic time. This point of agreement transcends the existing disagreements on the details of the changes and should provide us with an important stimulus to expand our efforts to unravel the apparently eventful chemical history of seawater”. Over the last several decades, there have been considerable advances in our understanding of this eventful chemical history of seawater, particularly in relation to major element composition, redox conditions and nutrient availability; all the way from the early Archean to today. Many of these advances have been insights from the sedimentology and geochemistry of carbonates. In this overview I will present a broad chemical history of seawater, with an emphasis on new and published data from marine carbonates. In particular, I will focus on the links between carbonate mineralogy and the major ion composition of seawater; ocean redox conditions and the Precambrian “dolomite problem” ; and how a low-oxygen Precambrian ocean-atmosphere may have significantly influenced the style and chemistry of Earth’s early carbonate systems. In many aspects of this ocean history, it appears that the present may not always be the key to the past.

1 – Morphology and Depositional Architecture of a Miocene Carbonate Platform, Central Luconia: An Insight from wave pattern analysis
Muhammad Hanif Haziq*, D.A. Uli, Dr. Z. Z. T. Harith, M.M.H. Mohammad, G. Primadani, A. Kolupaev, S.Fun, Z.Mohammad, G. Primadani & J. Margotta
Beicip-Franlab, Asia

2 – Sedimentary evolution and vertical movements of Cenomanian to Santonian carbonate platforms in Iberia
Nicolas Saspiturry*, Simon Andrieu, Marine Lartigau, Benoit Issautier, Paul Angran, Eric Lasseur and Tiago M. Alves
Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France / University of Cardiff, UK

3 – Seismic-scale coral carpets on a mixed carbonate-siliciclastic shelf; a sedimentological study from the Lower Cretaceous of NW Africa
Orrin Bryers*, Jonathan Redfern, Luc Bulot & Aude Duval-Arnould
University of Manchester, UK

1 – Along-strike sedimentological variability of calcareous tempestites
Thomas Haines*, Joyce Neilson
Independent / University of Aberdeen, UK

2 – Sedimentological study of Miocene coral carbonate facies in the Syracuse area (Sicily)
Claudia Morabito*
University of Ferrara, Italy

3 – Spatial self-organization and autogenic dynamics of peritidal carbonate system: insights from stratigraphic forward modelling
Haiwei Xi* and Peter Burgess
University of Liverpool, UK

4 – Tracing the origins of marine epiphytic environments: new insights from Upper Triassic shallow water carboantes of the Yukon, Canada
Nicolo del Piero*, Sylvain Regaud, Rossana Martini
University of Geneva, Switzerland

1 – Analysing statistical properties and heterogeity of Holocene freshwater dolomites from Hungary using CT data
Nour Alzoubi*, Sandor Gulyas, Janos Geiger
University of Szeged, Hungary

2 – Microbial versus abiotic controls on Mg- and Ca-carbonate precipitation and diagenesis: Insights from a modern hydromagnesite-magnesite playa, Atlin, BC, Canada
Tom Kibblewhite*, Emily Junkins, Fiona Whitaker, and Bradley Stevenson
University of Bristol, UK

3 – Petrological, geochemical and morphological characteristics of modern and ancient lacustrine microbial carbonates of the Iberian Peninsula
Connor Doyle*, Stefan Schröder, Juan Pablo Corella, Blas Valero Garces, Julia Behnsen
University of Manchester, UK

1 – A Cretaceous alkaline lake as an analogue for the prebiotic P-cycle?
Raphael Pietzsch*, Sascha Roest-Ellis, Nicholas J. Tosca
University of Oxford, UK

2 – Dating records of past seafloor methane emissions along the US Atlantic margin
Diana Sahy*
British Geological Survey, UK

3 – The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum in the Hampshire Basin: new insight from carbonate clumped-isotope thermometer
Marta Marchegiano* and Cedric John
Imperial College, University of London, UK

4 – POSTER
Dating carbonates with in situ U-Pb geochronology
Nick Roberts
British Geological Survey, UK

1 – A method for constraining fluid advection rates on carbonate platforms using calcium and clumped isotopes
Philip Staudigel*
University of Cardiff, UK

2 – Controls on the Localisation of Fault/Fracture Controlled Dolomitization: insights from the Derbyshire Platform, Lower Carboniferous, UK
Catherine Breislin*, Cathy Hollis, Ian Millar, Vanessa Banks, James Riding
University of Manchester, UK

3 – High temperature fault-controlled dolomitization by convection of seawater: concept evaluation using reactive transport modelling
Rungroj Benjakul*, Cathy Hollis, Hamish A. Robertson, Eric L. Sonnenthal, Fiona Whitaker
University of Bristol, UK

4 – POSTER
Reconstructing fluid circulation pathways in volcanically influenced settings: a case study from the Namibe Basin (Angola)
Edoardo Fiordalisi, Gustavo do Couto Pereira, Nathan Rochelle-Bates Nathan, Marta Marchegian, Cedric John, Richard Dixon, Ian Sharp, Stefan Schröder
University of Manchester, UK

1 – Biogeochemical drivers of modern carbonate firm-ground formation: Yas lagoon, Abu Dhabi
Hazel Vallack*, Sarah E. Greene, Stephen W. Lokier, Jens Holtvoeth, Victoria A. Petryshyn, Emily N. Junkins, Bradley S. Stevenson, Fiona Whitaker
University of Bristol, UK

2 – Karst Geobody Extraction through the combination of Karst Characterisation Workflow and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in Carbonate Fields of Central Luconia Province, Sarawak
Sook Fun Lim*, D.A. Uli, A. Kumar, M.H.H. Mohammad, Z. Mohammad, Z.Z. Tuan Harith, A. Kolupaev and Y.F. Zainudain
Beicip-Franlab, Asia

3 – Influence of long term exposure surfaces on the compartmentalization and distribution of microporosity in shallow water carbonates
Hugues Biltault*, Philippe Leonide, François Fournier, Cathy Hollis, Matthieu Rousseau & Jérôme Hennuy
University of Manchester, UK

4 – Petrophysical and Acoustic Properties of Two Middle East Reservoirs; A Comparison between Calcitic and Aragonitic Sea Deposits
Moaz Salih*, John J.G. Reijmer, Luis A. González, and Ammar El-Husseiny
KFUPM, Saudi Arabia

1 – Hydrobreccias, Zebra Dolomite, and Crack-Seal Textures; Implications for the Emplacement of Fault-Controlled Dolomite
Cole McCormick*, Cathy Hollis, Ernie Rutter, Hilary Corlett
University of Manchester, UK

2 – The impact of hydrocarbon emplacement on cementation in carbonate reservoirs
Stephen Gundu*, Cess van der Land, Sanem Acikilan, Tannaz Pak, Shannon Flynn, Laura Galluccio
Newcastle University, UK

3 – Diagenetic evolution of Jurassic platform carbonates along the NE Atlantic Margin
Nawwar Al Sinawi*, Cathy Hollis, Stefan Schröder, Jonathan Redfern
University of Manchester, UK

4 – Application of Clumped Isotope Palaeothermometry to reconstruct thermal evolution of recrystallised calcite in fine-grained micrites
Sarah Robinson*, Cédric M. John, Annabel Dale, Mark Osborne
Imperial College, University of London, UK