Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T02:47:58.433Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relationship Between Illite/Smectite Diagenesis and Hydrocarbon Generation in Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek Shales of The Northern Rocky Mountain Area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Roger L. Burtner  and
Maurice A. Warner
Roger L. Burtner
Affiliation:
Chevron Oil Field Research Company, P.O. Box 446, La Habra, California 90631
Maurice A. Warner
Affiliation:
Chevron U.S.A. Inc., Central Region, P.O. Box 559, Denver, Colorado 80201
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Keywords

DiagenesisHydrocarbonIllite/smectiteInterstratificationMaturationPyrolysisShale
Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , August 1986 , pp. 390 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © 1986, The Clay Minerals Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bruce, C. H. (1983) Relation of illite/smectite diagenesis and development of structure in the northern Gulf of Mexico Basin: Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 67, 432 (abstract).Google Scholar
Bruce, C. H., 1984 Smectite dehydration—its relation to structural development and hydrocarbon accumulation in northern Gulf of Mexico Basin Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 68 673–683.Google Scholar
Burst, J. F., 1969 Diagenesis of Gulf Coast clayey sediments and its possible relation to petroleum migration Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 53 73–93.Google Scholar
Burtner, R. L., 1974 The use of porous vycor as a substrate for X-ray diffraction analyses of oriented clay minerals Program & Abstracts 21.Google Scholar
Burtner, R. L., Warner, M. A., Woodward, J., Meissner, F. F. and Clayton, J. L., 1984 Hydrocarbon generation in Lower Cretaceous Mowry and Skull Creek shales of the northern Rocky Mountain area Hydrocarbon Source Rocks of the Greater Rocky Mountain Region Denver Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 449–467.Google Scholar
Byers, C. W. and Larson, D. W., 1979 Paleoenvironments of Mowry Shale (Lower Cretaceous), western and central Wyoming Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 63 354–375.Google Scholar
Clayton, J. L., Swetland, P. J. and Veal, H. K., 1977 Preliminary report: petroleum geochemistry of the Denver basin Exploration Frontiers of the Central and Southern Rockies Denver, Colorado Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 223–233.Google Scholar
Clayton, J. L. and Swetland, P. J., 1980 Petroleum generation and migration in Denver basin Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 64 1613–1633.Google Scholar
Davis, J. C., 1970 Petrology of Mowry Cretaceous Shale of Wyoming Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 54 487–502.Google Scholar
Dembicki, H., Horsfield, B. and Ho, T. T. Y., 1983 Source rock evaluation by pyrolysis-gas chromatography Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 67 1094–1103.Google Scholar
Espitalie, J., Madec, M., Tissot, B., Menig, J. J. and Le Plat, P., 1977 Source rock characterization method for petroleum exploration Proc. 9th Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas 3 439–448.Google Scholar
Forgotson, J. M. Jr. and Stark, P. H., 1972 Well data files and the computer, a case history from northern Rocky Mountains Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 56 1114–1127.Google Scholar
Foscolos, A. E., Powell, T. G. and Gunther, P. R., 1976 The use of clay minerals and inorganic and organic geochemical indicators for evaluating the degree of diagenesis and oil potential of shales Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 40 953–966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, W. R. and Custard, H. C., 1982 Role of clay composition on extent of smectite-illite diagenesis American Association of Petroleum Geologists Research Conference, Role of Clay Minerals in Hydrocarbon Exploration, Santa Fe, New Mexico 11–12.Google Scholar
Foster, W. R. and Custard, H. H. (1983) Role of clay composition on extent of illite/smectite diagenesis: Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 67, p. 462 (abstract).Google Scholar
Geis, W. H., 1923 The origin of light oils in the Rocky Mountain region Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 7 499–504.Google Scholar
Hower, J. and Longstaffe, F. J., 1981 X-ray diffraction identification of mixed-layer clay minerals Clays and the Resource Geologist 39–59.Google Scholar
Hower, J. and Longstaffe, F. J., 1981 Shale diagenesis Clays and the Resource Geologist Edmonton Mineralogical Association of Canada, Short Course Handbook, Co-op Press 60–80.Google Scholar
McCubbin, D. G. and Patton, J. W., 1981 Burial diagenesis of illite/smectite; a kinetic model Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 65 956.Google Scholar
McGookey, D. P., Haun, J. D., Hale, L. A., Goodell, H. G., McCubbin, D. G., Weimer, R. J., Wulf, G. R. and Mallory, W. W., 1972 Cretaceous System Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region Denver Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 190–228.Google Scholar
Momper, J. A. and Williams, J. A., 1979 Geochemical exploration in the Powder River basin Oil and Gas J. 77 129–134.Google Scholar
Perry, E. A. Jr., 1969 Burial diagenesis in Gulf Coast pelitic sediments .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, E. A. Jr. and Hower, J., 1970 Burial diagenesis in Gulf Coast pelitic sediments Clays & Clay Minerals 18 165–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, E. A. Jr. and Hower, J., 1972 Late-stage dehydration in deeply buried pelitic sediments Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 56 2013–2021.Google Scholar
Peters, K. E., Whelan, J. K., Hunt, J. M. and Tarafa, M. E., 1983 Programmed pyrolysis of organic matter from thermally altered Cretaceous black shales Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 67 2137–2146.Google Scholar
Rettke, R. C., 1981 Probable burial diagenetic and provenance effects on Dakota Group clay mineralogy, Denver basin J. Sed. Petrol. 51 541–551.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R. C. and Hower, J., 1970 The nature of inter-layering in mixed layer illite/montmorilonites Clays & Clay Minerals 18 25–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubey, W. W., 1928 Origin of the siliceous Mowry Shale of the Black Hills region U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 154 153–170.Google Scholar
Schmidt, G. W., 1973 Interstitial water composition and geochemistry of deep Gulf Coast shales and sandstones Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 57 321–337.Google Scholar
Schrayer, G. J. and Zarrella, W. M., 1963 Organic geochemistry of shales—I. Distribution of organic matter in the siliceous Mowry Shale of Wyoming Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 30 415–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrayer, G. J., Zarrella, W. M. and Wulf, G. R., 1968 Organic carbon in the Mowry Formation and its relation to the occurrence of petroleum in Lower Cretaceous reservoir rocks 20th Field Conf. Guidebook, Black Hills Area, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming Laramie Wyoming Geological Association 35–39.Google Scholar
Tissot, B. P. and Weite, D. H., 1978 Petroleum Formation and Occurrence New York Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, M. A., 1982 Source and time of generation of hydrocarbons in the Fossil basin, western Wyoming thrust belt Geologic Studies of the Cordilleran Thrust Belt 2 805–815.Google Scholar
Weaver, C.E. (1979) Geothermal alteration of clay minerals and shales: diagenesis: ONWI Tech. Rept. 21, 176 pp.Google Scholar