Evolution of the Percolation Threshold in Muds and Mudrocks During Burial Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Muds and mudrocks are important barriers to flow and perform this role over their entire depositional history, from mediating sediment-ocean methane exchange to preventing leakage from hydrocarbon reservoirs, CO2 sequestration targets, or nuclear waste repositories. It is well established that the percolation threshold, which is the fluid saturation at which percolation occurs, is directly related to the pressure sealing capacity of a mud or mudrock. However, the evolution of the percolation threshold during burial and diagenesis is not well understood. Using a data set of natural muds and mudrocks and resedimented laboratory mixtures, we show that the percolation threshold is strongly controlled by porosity, achieving a minimum of 0.100.30 at a porosity of 0.40, and increasing as porosity increases or decreases from that value, to as high as 0.60 at deposition and >0.80 at porosity <0.10. This implies a highly disconnected pore network at high and low porosities.

published proceedings

  • GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS

altmetric score

  • 1.75

author list (cited authors)

  • Daigle, H., Reece, J. S., & Flemings, P. B.

citation count

  • 6

complete list of authors

  • Daigle, Hugh||Reece, Julia S||Flemings, Peter B

publication date

  • July 2019