Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers – Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference

‘The Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference is the seventh in a series that has become a tradition known as the ‘Barbican’ conferences. They started life over 35 years ago, in 1974, with a focus solely on North-West Europe, and have a reputation, both from the conferences and the accompanying Proceedings volumes, of being at the forefront of petroleum geoscience; the standard reference for successive generations of petroleum geoscientists.
North-West Europe has matured as a petroleum province and, at the same time, the conference series has matured to be a truly global event.
These Proceedings embrace many of the world’s petroleum provinces in a two-volume set. There are sections on Europe, which still provides the heart of the Proceedings; Russia, the former Soviet Union and Circum-Artic; North Africa and the Middle East; Passive Margins; and Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources.
In addition, the three Geocontroversies debates, highly acclaimed at the conference, are included, as is a summary of the Core Workshop. A DVD complements the books and, in addition to providing electronic versions of all the papers also includes selected posters and video clips from the Virtual Field Trip session; the latter being a major success at the conference. The Proceedings volumes of this seventh conference are therefore a ‘must’ for every petroleum geoscientist’s bookshelf.
Sedimentology, sandstone provenance and palaeodrainage on the eastern Rockall Basin margin: evidence from the Pb isotopic composition of detrital K-feldspar
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Published:January 01, 2010
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CiteCitation
S. Tyrrell, A. K. Souders, P. D. W. Haughton, J. S. Daly, P. M. Shannon, 2010. "Sedimentology, sandstone provenance and palaeodrainage on the eastern Rockall Basin margin: evidence from the Pb isotopic composition of detrital K-feldspar", Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers – Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference, B. A. Vining, S. C. Pickering
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Abstract
The Rockall Basin, west of Ireland, is a frontier area for hydrocarbon exploration, but currently the age and location of sand fairways through the basin are poorly known. A recently developed provenance approach based on in-situ Pb isotopic analysis of single K-feldspar grains by laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICPMS) offers advantages over other provenance techniques, particularly when applied to regional palaeodrainage issues. K-feldspar is a relatively common, usually first-cycle framework mineral in sandstones and its origin is typically linked to that of the quartz grains in arkosic and sub-arkosic rocks. Consequently, in contrast to other techniques, the Pb-in-K-feldspar tool characterizes a significant proportion of the framework grains. New Pb isotopic data from K-feldspars in putative Permo-Triassic and Middle Jurassic sandstones in Well 12/2-1z (the Dooish gas condensate discovery) on the eastern margin of the Irish Rockall Basin are reported. These data suggest that three isotopically distinct basement sources supplied the bulk of the K-feldspar in the reservoir sandstones and that the relative contribution of these sources varied through time. Archaean and early Proterozoic rocks (including elements of the Lewisian Complex and its offshore equivalents), to the immediate east, NE and north of the eastern Rockall Margin, are the likely sources. More distal sourcelands to the NW cannot be ruled out but there was no significant input from southern sources, such as the Irish Massif. These data, together with previously published regional Pb isotopic data, highlight the important role played by old, near and far-field Archaean–Proterozoic basement highs in contributing sediment to NE Atlantic margin basins. The Irish Massif appears to have acted as a significant, but inert, drainage divide from the Permo-Triassic to the Late Jurassic and hence younger, Avalonian and Variscan sand sources appear to have been less important on the Irish Atlantic Margin.
- alkali feldspar
- Archean
- arkosic composition
- Atlantic Ocean
- Avalonian Orogeny
- clastic rocks
- condensates
- detrital sedimentation
- feldspar group
- framework silicates
- geochemical methods
- ICP mass spectra
- isotope ratios
- isotopes
- K-feldspar
- lead
- Lewisian Complex
- mass spectra
- Mesozoic
- metals
- natural gas
- North Atlantic
- paleogeography
- Paleozoic
- Pb-206/Pb-204
- Permian
- petroleum
- petroleum exploration
- Precambrian
- provenance
- radioactive isotopes
- reconstruction
- Rockall Trough
- sandstone
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentation
- silicates
- source rocks
- spectra
- stable isotopes
- Triassic
- Irish Massif
- Dooish Field