PSGD Discussion Session: Fracture Corridors
Natural fractures in a United Kingdom shale reservoir analog, Cleveland Basin, northeast England
Faults and fractures within the well-exposed Lower Jurassic Cleveland Ironstone and Whitby Mudstone Formations may provide insights into the tectonic history of gas-prospective, Mississippian shale in northern England. Subvertical opening mode fractures occur throughout the Cleveland Basin. Bed-parallel fractures, some of which contain blocky calcite fills, occur preferentially within well-bedded, clay-rich mudstones of the Cleveland…
Read MoreCharacterising forest gap fraction with terrestrial lidar and photography: An examination of relative limitations
Slip distributions on active normal faults measured from terrestrial laser scanning and field mapping of geomorphic offsets: an example from L’Aquila, Italy.
Surface slip distributions for an active normal fault in central Italy have been measured using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), in order to assess the impact of changes in fault orientation and kinematics on subsurface slip distributions that control seismic moment release. The southeastern segment of the surface trace of the Campo Felice active normal fault…
Read MoreMinimising Risk in Fractured Reservoirs using Outcrop Analogues
Outcrop analogues play a vital role in the characterization of fractured reservoirs. Field-based studies are typically the most reliable way for fracture systems to be comprehensively quantified at sub-seismic scale, and allow the direct validation of fracture attributes derived from analysis of satellite imagery, aerial photos, core, and borehole image logs. Using outcrop examples of…
Read MoreUtilising Outcrop Analogues to Understand Natural Fracture Systems in Shales
In unconventional hydrocarbon plays, shales can act as a seal, source rock and reservoir. Characterising the geometry and kinematics of natural fracture systems within shales is a critical step in understanding reservoir geomechanics, optimising well plans, and predicting induced seismicity. Because data from boreholes are inherently sparse and of limited spatial extent, and since fracturing…
Read MoreSpatial quantification of leafless canopy structure in a boreal birch forest
Multi-scale nature of fracture properties: outcrop to satellite scales
Fracture networks observed at multiple scales, from thin section to satellite images, often show power-law distributions describing many of their properties across these scales. In this study fractures are measured from outcrop, terrestrial lidar, and satellite data spanning six orders of length-scale magnitude. Careful consideration of sampling methods was undertaken for each collection technique, as…
Read MoreVariability in interpretations when picking fractures from satellite images
Can kinematic approaches be used to predict shear fracture orientations for use in discrete fracture network models?
Structural geologists typically invoke the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion to explain the orientations of shear fractures. Nevertheless, there have been recent attempts to explain shear fracture orientation in terms of finite strain or strain increment. In these models, spatial variations in shear fracture orientation are explained by spatial variations in the orientations of lines of no…
Read More