Application of Structural Methods to Rocky Mountain Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development
With increasing industry emphasis on developing “unconventional” tight gas reservoirs and on enhancing recovery from existing fields, geologists are facing diverse challenges in the applications of structural geology. Identifying fracture characteristics within petroleum systems is essential. Understanding the timing of tectonics and the formation of structures is important, as these factors strongly influence hydrocarbon generation, migration, entrapment, and preservation. The purpose in publishing this collection of key papers is to aid future workers in addressing complex interrelationships between structural geology and hydrocarbon exploration and development. The first four chapters of this book focus on structural concepts and techniques. The second part of this book is a collection of Rocky Mountain fault and fracture studies. These well documented studies are valuable reference materials for all petroleum geologists.
An Overview of Low-temperature Thermochronology in the Rocky Mountains and Its Application to Petroleum System Analysis
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Published:January 01, 2013
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CiteCitation
S. Lynn Peyton, Barbara Carrapa, 2013. "An Overview of Low-temperature Thermochronology in the Rocky Mountains and Its Application to Petroleum System Analysis", Application of Structural Methods to Rocky Mountain Hydrocarbon Exploration and Development, Constance N. Knight, Jerome J. Cuzella, Leland D. Cress
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Abstract
A synthesis of low-temperature thermochronologic results throughout the Laramide foreland illustrates that samples from wellbores in Laramide basins record either (1) detrital Laramide or older cooling ages in the upper ~1 km (0.62 mi) of the wellbore, with younger ages at greater depths as temperatures increase; or (2) Neogene cooling ages. Surface samples from Laramide ranges typically record either Laramide or older cooling ages. It is apparent that for any particular area the complexity of the cooling history, and hence the tectonic history interpreted from the cooling history, increases as the number of studies or the area covered by a study increases. Most Laramide ranges probably experienced a complex tectono-thermal evolution. Deriving a regional timing sequence for the evolution of the Laramide basins and ranges is still elusive, although a compilation of low-temperature thermochronology data from ranges in the Laramide foreland suggests a younging of the ranges to the south and southwest. Studies of subsurface samples from Laramide basins have, in some cases, been integrated with and used to constrain results from basin burial-history modeling. Current exploration for unconventional shale-oil or shale-gas plays in the Rocky Mountains has renewed interest in thermal and burial history modeling as an aid in evaluating thermal maturity and understanding petroleum systems.This paper suggests that low-temperature thermochronometers are underutilized tools that can provide additional constraints to burial-history modeling and source rock evaluation in the Rocky Mountain region.
- Absaroka Range
- Alberta
- apatite
- Australasia
- Australia
- basins
- Beartooth Mountains
- Bighorn Basin
- Bighorn Mountains
- Black Hills
- boreholes
- Canada
- Carbon County Montana
- Cenozoic
- Colorado
- Cretaceous
- crude oil
- Daggett County Utah
- Denver Basin
- Douglas County Colorado
- Elbert County Colorado
- exhumation
- fission-track dating
- foreland basins
- Fremont County Wyoming
- Front Range
- Garfield County Colorado
- geochronology
- geologic thermometry
- Green River basin
- Laramide Orogeny
- Lewis thrust fault
- low temperature
- Mesozoic
- Miocene
- models
- Montana
- Nacimiento Mountains
- Natrona County Wyoming
- natural gas
- Neogene
- nesosilicates
- New Mexico
- New Zealand
- North America
- organic compounds
- orthosilicates
- Otway Basin
- Paleogene
- petroleum
- petroleum exploration
- phosphates
- Piceance Basin
- Powder River basin
- rates
- reservoir rocks
- Rio Arriba County New Mexico
- Rio Grande Rift
- Rocky Mountains
- Sangre de Cristo Mountains
- Sevier orogenic belt
- shale gas
- shale oil
- silicates
- source rocks
- South Dakota
- structural traps
- Sublette County Wyoming
- Taranaki Basin
- temperature
- Tertiary
- thermal history
- thermal maturity
- thermochronology
- traps
- (U-Th)/He
- U. S. Rocky Mountains
- Uinta Mountains
- United States
- Upper Cretaceous
- Utah
- vitrinite reflectance
- Western Canada
- Wet Mountains
- Williston Basin
- Wind River basin
- Wind River Range
- Wyoming
- zircon
- zircon group
- Teton Range
- Taos Range
- surface samples
- Flathead Fault
- burial history
- petroleum systems