Carbonate Microfabrics Permeability Characteristics of Continental Slope and Deep-Water Carbonates from a Microfabric Perspective

• Main Authors: Lavoie, Dawn L, Bryant, William R
• Format: Publication
• Language: English
• Published: 22.11.2006
• Subjects: ARAGONITE; CALCITE; CARBONATES; CLAY; CLAY MINERALS; COCCOLITHS; CONTINENTAL SLOPES; DEEP WATER; DEPTH; ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM; ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; FABRICS; FLUID MECHANICS; FLUIDS; GEOACOUSTICS; GEOCHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY; GEOLOGY; MARINE; MICROFABRICS; MICROPORES; MICROSTRUCTURE; MIDOCEAN; NEEDLES; OCEANS; PARTICLES; PE61153N; PENETRATION; PENETROMETERS; PERMEABILITY; PERMEAMETERS; PHYSICAL AND DYNAMIC OCEANOGRAPHY; POROSITY; PRESSURE; RATES; REDUCTION; REPRINTS; SCANNING; SEDIMENTOLOGY; SEDIMENTS; SMECTITES; WUDN255014

Pub. in Frontiers in Sedimentary Geology, p117-128 1994. Permeability, the rate at which fluids move through a porous medium, affects the consolidation and reduction in porosity of a sediment with time and overburden pressure. Most marine clays consist of smectites and illites that are fine-grained and platey. In contrast, carbonate sediments are composed of multishaped, multisized components. In general, clay-rich sediments consolidate to lower porosities and are less permeable that carbonates at given overburden pressures. This difference is related to microfabric. Numerous samples recovered from the continental slope to midocean depths were consolidated in the laboratory, and permeabilities were determined directly by using falling head permeameters and indirectly by consolidation theory. In the marine clays, porosity values ranged between 1 x 10(exp-10) cm/s. In contrast, carbonate sediments with porosities between 60 and 40% had permeabilities that ranged between 1 x 10(exp-4) and 1 x 10(exp-7) cm/s. Sediments with varying percentages of carbonate content, but with a matrix of clay particles, fall with in the same range as the clays. At given porosities, permeabilities with in the carbonate sediments are determined by microfabric. For example, grain-supported samples have a higher permeability (1 x 10(exp-4) cm/s) than matrix-supported samples (1 x 10(exp-5) and 1 x 10(exp-6) cm/s). In general, matrix-supported carbonate sediments composed of aragonite needles have higher permeabilities (1 x 10(exp- 5) cm/s) than matrix-supported sediments of low-magnesian calcite composed predominately of coccoliths (1 x 10(exp-6) cm/s). Geoacoustics, Penetration, Sedimentology, Permeability, Penetrometers, Geotechnical properties.