Geology 101

Class 9
Spring 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEa36qNo86E
Deposition Environments
Deposition - Continental
Larger stuff nearer the source Alluvial fans
Conglomerates/breccias
Floodplains
Lakes (Reservoir)
Swamp Lignite and coal
End of glacier sands, gravels
Caves and sinkholes


Coal
Delta, continental environments
Carbonized Woody Material
Often fossilized trees, leaves present

Deadwater Road Alluvial Fan, Death Valley N.P.
Glacial Deposition
http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/arctic-islands
/icons-04/04-14-moraine.jpg
Depositional Environments
Continental/Marine interface
Beach (littoral) -
Delta
Estuary
Lagoon

Shallow marine deposition
Rivers
Sands
Silts
Clays
Calcium carbonates
Shells, corals, algae
Oolites
Direct precipitation
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/105/billy
_goat_trip.htm
Depositional Environments
Marine
Shallow sea most deposition (Includes
inland Seas and basins)
Sand near shore
Clay and silt next out - Outside wave
affected zone
Carbonate in clear water
Intermediate sea
Deep sea

http://www.divegallery.com/coral_crab.htm
Coral crab at home in coral bed
Oolite Limestone from
http://www.minersgallery.com/category/oolite/
WYOMING
Coccolithophorids
Some of those that sacrifice their
bodies to make limestone
Foraminiferans
More modern day heroes of
limestone formation
Intermediate and deep water
deposition
Little sediment makes off the continental shelf
except:
What collects in canyon and then slides off
Turbidity currents
Carbonate re-dissolves at depth (6000)
No clams, corals, foraminiferans, etc.
Only atmospheric fall out in abyss

Turbidity currents move
land sediments to abyssal
deep and erode canyon in
side of continental slope
as shown in this picture of
Monterrey Canyon off
California
Model of deposition of
sediments in a turbidity
current, showing the repeating
upward fining of sediments,
the Bouma Sequence
Imagine of a modeled turbidity
current in a New York test tank
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/105/
billy_goat_trip.htm
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src="http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=292
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http://www.nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/105/billy_goat_trip.htm
Greywacke
Sedimentary Basins and Energy
Basins form:
Seafloor spreading both sides basins
Subducting margins also
Basins drive selves Sediment begets sinking
Intracratonic basins
Michigan Basin
Depth to bedrock in feet
World Sedimentary Basins Green onshore, Purple offshore
Two Texas Basins, one from Permian
Age, mostly carbonate,
the Cretaceous-Tertary-Quaternary
sandstones
Formation of Oil and Gas
Microscopic plankton animal and plant
Live in upper water column, remains sink






Future oil and gas

Look like - Seaborne dust mites
http://www.geomore.com/oil-and-gas-traps/
Formation of Oil and Gas
Microscopic plankton animal and plant
Live in upper water column, remains sink
Deposit in basin in anaerobic environment
Buried by other sediments
Anaerobic degradation, release CH4 and CO2
More deposition
Hotter and hotter, more pressure
First cook kerogen
Formation of Oil and Gas (2)
Heat and pressure remove water and other
compounds formed in degradation of organics
Kerogen percursor to oil and gas
If 1-3 km deep, 100- 200 C Crack to smaller
molecules Oil Window
Pressure causes natural fracking
Oil and gas float up in water saturated rock
Trapped in reservoir
By trap
Reservoirs and Traps-
Traditional
Reservoirs High porosity, high permeability
Limestone
Dolomite
Sandstones
Traps - Low permeability shales, siltstones,
halite
Layers - stratigraphy
Anticlines
Straight bedding
Pinch out
1-3 Km
Anticlinal trap. Sandstone reservoir, Shale source
Anticlinal trap, shale over sandstone reservoir rock
What is wrong with this picture? - think Steno
Oil and Gas Reservoirs and Traps Blue - reservoir rock Green Accumulations of Crude Oil
Red Accumulations Natural gas
Picture of producing
Anticlinal structure
Pinchout trap
Stratigraphic traps

Level and pinchout

What could have
created reservoir
sandstone?
Why the oil industry
knows where the
salt domes are
http://www.aglresources.com/about/gt/saltdome.aspx
From Roadside Geology of Texas, Spearing1991
Question Which trap includes an angular unconformity?
http://www.green-planet-solar-
energy.com/fossil-fuel-formation.html
Location of Texas Coal
and Lignite Deposits
TAMU College Station
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/oil-boom-north-
dakota-is-the-next-hub-of-us-energy-9660512
Fracking or human pressurization of porous but
low permeability shales containing natural gas and crude
trapped in the pores greatly increases production.
One of the breakthroughs is injecting particles to
hold the crack open.
Fracking fluid contains:

Water, Palmtic Acid, Glycerin,
Tri-ethanolamine, Isopentane,
Glyceryl Oleate, Steric acid, Isobutane,
Sorbitol, Hydroethylcellulose, Propylene
glycol, Butyrospermum parkii, butter
extract, glycerol acetate/acrylic acid
copolymer, fragrance/Parfigum

List of ingredients in shaving cream:
Dont have a list of what is in fracking fluids

Coal
Basins also often contain coal
Origin Land based plants
Location Swampy edges of basins
Buried in water, no oxygen
Buried deeper and deeper
Increased pressure and temp

Coal (2)
Burial drives off water, oxygen, hydrogen
Leaves partially decomposed plant matter -
peat
5400 Btu/lb

Large pores

Free cellulose

Fuel or mulch
75% Water
Coal (3)
Bury deeper
More pressure
More heat
More time
Soft brown coal
or lignite
7200-9900 Btu/ton
No free cellulose
Often low sulfur content

Coal (4)
Keep pressure on
Bituminous
coal

Real coal
No plant structure
12,000 Btu/ton
10% water
Often higher Sulfur
King Coal
Colliding continental plates drive swamp
sediments really deep
Eventually get ANTHRACITE King Coal
15,500 Btu/ton
Not much left
Deep mines
Objectives Chapter 5
Describe the two types of rock weathering
and the resulting sediment types
Describe the processes that lithify
sediments into sedimentary rocks
Classify the major clastic and
chemical/biogenic rock types by
composition and texture
Describe the connection between
depositional environment and the type of
sedimentary rock that can develop there.
Define the connections between
sedimentary formations and fossil fuels