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GEOREF RECORD

Relationship between illite/smectite diagenesis and hydrocarbon generation in Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek Shales of the Northern Rocky Mountain area

R. L. Burtner and M. A. Warner
Relationship between illite/smectite diagenesis and hydrocarbon generation in Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek Shales of the Northern Rocky Mountain area
Clays and Clay Minerals (August 1986) 34 (4): 390-402

Abstract

The percentage of expandable layers in illite/smectite (I/S) mixed-layer clay decreases with increasing temperature and depth in a section through marine Cretaceous shales in the Champlin 1 Hartley Federal well in the Powder River basin, Wyoming. This systematic change in I/S expandability is evidence that low-expandable I/S in Cretaceous shales of the northern Rocky Mountain area reflects, at least in part, thermal alteration during burial diagenesis. In eastern Montana and western North Dakota where I/S in the Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek source rocks is diagenetically unaltered, only trace amounts of hydrocarbons have been found in the Lower Cretaceous and other Cretaceous sandstones. Elsewhere in the northern Rocky Mountain-Great Plains region, hydrocarbons in the Lower Cretaceous Muddy Sandstone and its equivalents occur within or immediately adjacent to areas in which I/S clay in the Mowry and Skull Creek shales has been diagenetically altered during burial. Altered I/S and thermally mature organic matter, as defined by Rock-Eval pyrolysis values, coexist in these source rocks. Both may be used as maturation indicators in the search for Cretaceous-source hydrocarbons in the northern Rocky Mountain area.


ISSN: 0009-8604
Coden: CLCMAB
Serial Title: Clays and Clay Minerals
Serial Volume: 34
Serial Issue: 4
Title: Relationship between illite/smectite diagenesis and hydrocarbon generation in Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek Shales of the Northern Rocky Mountain area
Affiliation: Chevron Oil Field Res. Co., La Habra, CA, United States
Pages: 390-402
Published: 198608
Text Language: English
Publisher: Clay Minerals Society, Clarkson, NY, United States
References: 34
Accession Number: 1987-007574
Categories: Economic geology, geology of energy sourcesSedimentary petrology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. 2 tables, sketch map
N37°00'00" - N41°00'00", W109°00'00" - W102°00'00"
N44°30'00" - N49°00'00", W116°01'60" - W104°01'60"
N45°55'00" - N49°00'00", W104°04'60" - W96°34'60"
N42°30'00" - N45°55'00", W104°04'60" - W96°27'00"
N37°00'00" - N42°00'00", W114°04'60" - W109°04'60"
N41°00'00" - N45°00'00", W111°04'60" - W104°04'60"
Secondary Affiliation: Chevron USA, USA, United States
Source Note: John Hower Memorial Issue
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Abstract, Copyright, Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Update Code: 1987
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