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Palaeohydrodynamic fluid flow regimes during diagenesis of the Brent Group in the Hutton-NW Hutton reservoirs: constraints from oxygen isotope studies of authigenic kaolin and reverse flexural modelling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

G. E. McAulay ,
S. D. Burley ,
A. E. Fallick  and
N. J. Kusznir
G. E. McAulay
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
S. D. Burley
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
A. E. Fallick
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU, UK
N. J. Kusznir
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Liverpool, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
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Abstract

Authigenic kaolin is a major occluder of porosity at all depths in the Hutton-NW Hutton Brent Group reservoirs. Two polytypes, kaolinite and dickite, are present. Kaolinite occurs to a depth of ∼10,600 ft and is interpreted to be eogenetic. Dickite increases in abundance with burial depth, concomitant with increasing K-feldspar dissolution. Kaolin petrography indicates that kaolinite transforms to dickite via dissolution-reprecipitation at depths of ∼11,000 ft. Dickite has δ18O values characteristic of modified meteoric water for growth at temperatures of contemporaneous quartz authigenesis.

Palaeohydrodynamic models involving meteoric water penetration down to 2 km through faults or Palaeozoic rocks of the East Shetland Platform are unlikely to provide the vigorous fluid throughput required for kaolin precipitation. Reverse post-rift modelling indicates that the crest of the Hutton-NW Hutton fault block was not sub-aerially exposed, precluding meteoric water ingress via this route. Eogenetic kaolinite formed in a meteoric water flush driven by topographic head on the Brent Delta. Dickite is, in part, derived from kaolinite dissolution, with additional sourcing from K-feldspar dissolution and Si-Al in pore-waters expelled from mudstones during burial. This model precludes the need for extensive fluid-flushing at intermediate burial depths.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 609 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

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