Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:31:13.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does the nucleation of clay minerals control the rate of diagenesis in sandstones?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Mark Wilkinson
Mark Wilkinson*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, James Hutton Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK
*
E-mail: Mark.Wilkinson@ed.ac.uk
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Nucleation is much more important for clay minerals than for other authigenic cements as clay crystals are very small, so that a very large number of clay crystals must be nucleated. The role of this difficult kinetic step in the diagenesis of sandstones has not been considered adequately as a ratedetermining process. The relationship between pore-fluid supersaturation and the rate of nucleation of a mineral is very different from the relationship between supersaturation and the rate of crystal enlargement; thus the two processes will act at very different rates. A diagenetic model that predicts claymineral formation but omits the nucleation stage may make unreliable predictions. This may account partially for the discrepancy between numerical simulations of CO2 injection that predict high degrees of reaction between the CO2 and the host rock, and the results of studies of natural analogues that have much lower degrees of reaction.

Keywords

nucleationclay mineraldiagenesis
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 275 - 281
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015

References

Arvidson, R.S. & Luttge, A. (2010) Mineral dissolution kinetics as a function of distance from equilibrium -New experimental results. Chemical Geology, 269, 79–88.10.1016/j.chemgeo.2009.06.009Google Scholar
Baines, S.J. & Worden, R.H. (2004) The long-term fate of CO2 in the subsurface: natural analogues for CO2 storage. Pp. 59-85 in: Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide (S.J. Baines & R.H. Worden, editors). Special Publication, 233. Geological Society of London.Google Scholar
Bjørlykke, K. & Aagaard, P. (1992) Clay Minerals in North Sea sandstones. Pp. 65-80 in: Origin, Diagenesis, and Petrophysics of Clay Minerals in Sandstones (D.W. Houseknecht & E.D. Pittman, editors). Special Publication 47 of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.Google Scholar
Blum, A.E. & Stillings, L.L. (1995) Feldspar dissolution kinetics. Pp. 291-351 in: Chemical Weathering Rates of Silicate Minerals. (A.F. White & S.L. Brantley, editors). Reviews in Mineralogy, 31, Mineralogical Society of America, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Brady, P.V. & Walther, J.V. (1989) Controls on silicate dissolution rates in neutral and basic pH solutions at 25°C. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 53, 2823–2830.10.1016/0016-7037(89)90160-9Google Scholar
Coudrain-Ribstein, A., Gouze, P. & de Marsily, G. (1998) Temperature-carbon dioxide partial pressure trends in confined aquifers. Chemical Geology, 145, 73–89.10.1016/S0009-2541(97)00161-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaus, I., Azaroual, M. & Czernichowski-Lauriol, I. (2005) Reactive transport modelling of the impact of CO2 injection on the clayey cap rock at Sleipner (North Sea). Chemical Geology, 217, 319–337.10.1016/j.chemgeo.2004.12.016Google Scholar
Glasmann, J.R., Clark, R.A., Larter, S., Briedis, N.A. & Lundeguard, P.D. (1989) Diagenesis and hydrocarbon accumulation, Brent Sandstone (Jurassic), Bergen High area, North Sea. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 73, 1341–1360.Google Scholar
Hamilton, P.J., Kelly, S. & Fallick, A.E. (1989) K-Ardating of illite in hydrocarbon reservoirs. Clay Minerals, 24, 215–231.10.1180/claymin.1989.024.2.08Google Scholar
Heald, M.T. & Larese, R.E. (1974) Influence of Coatings on Quartz Cementation. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 44, 1269–1274.Google Scholar
Hutcheon, I., Shevalier, M. & Abercrombie, H.J. (1993) pH buffering by metastable mineral-fluid equilibria and evolution of carbon dioxide fugacity during burial diagenesis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 57, 1017–1027.10.1016/0016-7037(93)90037-WGoogle Scholar
Klein, E., De Lucia, M., Kempka, T. & Kühn, M. (2013) Evaluation of long-term mineral trapping at the Ketzin pilot site for CO2 storage: an integrative approach using geochemical modelling and reservoir simulation. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 19, 720–730.10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.05.014Google Scholar
Lander, R.H. & Bonnell, L.M. (2010) A model for fibrous illite nucleation and growth in sandstones. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 94, 1161–1187.10.1306/04211009121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasaga, A.C. (1998) Kinetic Theory in the Earth Sciences, pp. 497–551. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
Lasaga, A.C. & Luttge, A. (2001) Variation of crystal dissolution rate based on a dissolution stepwave model. Science, 291, 2400–2404.10.1126/science.1058173Google Scholar
Lu, J., Wilkinson, M., Haszeldine, R.S. & Boyce, A.J. (2011) Carbonate cements in Miller field of the UK North Sea: a natural analog for mineral trapping in CO2 geological storage. Environmental Earth Sciences, 62, 507–517.10.1007/s12665-010-0543-1Google Scholar
Lu, J., Wilkinson, M., Haszeldine, R.S. & Fallick, A.E. (2009) Long-term performance of a mudrock seal in natural CO2 storage. Geology, 37, 35–38.10.1130/G25412A.1Google Scholar
Maher, K., Steefel, C.I., De Paolo, D.I. & Viani, B.E. (2006) The mineral dissolution rate conundrum: Insights from reactive transport modelling of U isotopes and pore fluid chemistry in marine sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 70, 337–363.10.1016/j.gca.2005.09.001Google Scholar
Mullin, J.W. (2001) Crystallisation. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, England.Google Scholar
Nielsen, A.E. (1964) Kinetics of Precipitation. Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Pačes, T. (1983) Rate constants of dissolution derived from the measurements of mass balance in hydrological catchments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 47, 1855–1863.10.1016/0016-7037(83)90202-8Google Scholar
Radoslovich, E.W. (1959) Structural control of poly-morphism in micas. Nature, 183, 253.10.1038/183253a0Google Scholar
Small, J.S. (1993) Experimental determination of the rates of precipitation of authigenic illite and kaoliniteite in the presence of aqueous oxalate and comparison to the K/Ar ages of authigenic illite in reservoir sandstones. Clays and Clay Minerals, 41, 191–208.10.1346/CCMN.1993.0410208Google Scholar
Smith, J.T. & Ehrenberg, S.N. (1989) Correlation of carbon dioxide abundance with temperature in clastic hydrocarbon reservoirs: relationship to inorganic chemical equilibrium. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 6, 129–135.10.1016/0264-8172(89)90016-0Google Scholar
Wilkinson, M. & Haszeldine, R.S. (2002) Problems with argon: K—Ar ages in Gulf Coast shales. Chemical Geology, 191, 277–283.10.1016/S0009-2541(02)00145-6Google Scholar
Wilkinson, M., Haszeldine, R.S. & Fallick, A.E. (2014) Authigenic illite within northern and central North Sea oilfield sandstones: evidence for post-growth alteration. Clay Minerals, 49, 229–246.10.1180/claymin.2014.049.2.06Google Scholar
Wilkinson, M., Haszeldine, R.S., Fallick, A.E., Odling, N., Stoker, S. & Gatliff, R. (2009) CO2 - mineral reaction in a natural analogue for CO2 storage: implications for modelling. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 79, 486–94.10.2110/jsr.2009.052Google Scholar
White, A.F. & Brantley, S.L. (2003) The effect of time on the weathering of silicate minerals: why do weathering rates differ in the laboratory and field? Chemical Geology, 202, 479–506.Google Scholar
White, A.F. & Peterson, M.L. (1990) Role of the reactive surface area characterisation in geochemical kinetic models. Pp. 461–475 in: Chemical Modelling of Aqueous Systems II (D.C. Melchior & R.L. Bassett, editors). American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar