Compaction, Lithification &

Diagenesis
 Compaction-The process
• Compaction of sediments involves complex
processes causing reduced porosity, increased
density and other physical properties such as
bulk modulus and velocity.
– Mechanical compaction processes are controlled
by the effective stress.
– Chemical compaction occurs by dissolution and
precipitation of solids and are controlled by
thermodynamics and kinetics.
 Compaction-The process
• Most sediments deposited under normal
surface conditions have primary porosities of
on the order of 30% to 70%.
– Interconnected pore spaces filled with water.
– Lithostatic pressure.
– Where sedimentation is faster than compaction,
fluid overpressure can develop. This is of great
importance in both sediment diagenesis and
petroleum generation and migration.
 Compaction to consolidation
• Most fine-grained sediments lose pore water
soon after deposition by consolidation.
• Compaction is consequence of overburden
pressure.
• The process leads to porosity occlusion
(partial elimination of pore spaces).
 Compaction to consolidation
• Depth profiles of compacting sediments show
an exponential decay in porosity with depth.
 Compaction to consolidation
• Compaction commonly involves deformation, on
scales ranging upward from individual grains.
• The extreme compaction of fine-grained
siliciclastic rocks is of great importance to
petroleum geologists, because if those rocks
contain mobile petroleum hydrocarbons, those
fluids are expelled upward into overlying porous
rocks, which can then become petroleum
reservoirs if they are capped by an appropriate
seal.
 Compaction to consolidation
• Compaction commonly involves deformation,
on scales ranging upward from individual
grains.
 Pressure solution
• Sandstones commonly show solution of grains
at grain-to-grain contacts. This is especially
important for quartz framework grains. This
process is termed pressure solution.
– The process involves welding of adjacent grains.
Such boundaries are said to be sutured.
 Pressure solution-The process
• Solubility of quartz increases slightly with
pressure.
• This leads to slight dissolution of quartz at the
grain contacts.
• The local concentration of silica in solution is
slightly greater in the immediate vicinity of the
contacts.
• The process leads to oversaturated silica solution
vicinity of grain boundary which leads to
precipitation of silica resulting in sutured grain
boundary.
 PORE FLUIDS

Meteoric water:
Rain water

Connate water:
Water with which
a sediment was
deposited
 Pore-Fluid Flow
• Pore fluids move in response to pressure
gradients.
– Compactional flow results when excess pore water
is squeezed out of the compacting sediment as
the overburden pressure increases during burial.
– Convective flow due to thermal gradients.
Pore-Fluid Flow
 Mechanical and Chemical Diagenesis
• Diagenesis involves both mechanical and
chemical-mineralogical processes.
– Mechanical diagenesis results from vertical and
accompanying lateral stresses caused by the
overburden load of younger sediments, and
possibly by additional stresses due to
compressional tectonic movements.
– Chemical diagenesis includes dissolution and
recrystallization of primary sediment particles.
Mechanical diagenesis-The process
• The processes promote the reduction of
porosity and permeability, enhance the bulk
density.
• In normally consolidated sediments, the fabric
strength or compaction state is in equilibrium
with the overburden pressure.
 The process
• Purely mechanical (or gravitational)
compaction of a fine-grained sediment will
reduce porosity.
 The process
• Compaction Ratio: The ratio between hl and
h2 is the compaction ratio.
– When hl = Initial thickness, h2 = Thickness
after compaction.
 Chemical Diagenesis
• Chemical diagenesis in various rock types from
many regions all over the world.
• Chemical diagenesis affects siliciclastic and
biogenic materials (skeletal remains and
organic matter) of greatly varying solubility
and thermodynamic stability.
• It includes mineral reactions with pore fluids
ranging from meteoric waters to highly
concentrated brines.
 Early Diagenesis
• “Early" (shallow-burial) diagenesis and “Late"
(deep-burial) diagenesis.
– A sharp boundary between early and late
diagenesis is difficult to define.
– The processes and products of early diagenesis
vary strongly according to the depositional
environment and the type of sediment.
– For diagenesis of rock containing organic matter
bacteria plays an important role.
 Late Diagenesis
• At deep burial depths the sediments are
subject to increased temperature and
effective stress.
• Mineral species that are stable at surface
temperature become unstable and tend to
transform into new minerals.
 Diagenesis and onset of
Metamorphism
• Sediments must be buried very deeply in order to
attain the temperature needed for the onset of
low-grade metamorphism (around 200 ºC).
• Temperature distribution in a sedimentary basin
is controlled by conductive heat flow from the
deeper crust and, in particular cases, by advective
heat transfer due to meteoric water circulation.
• It is difficult to draw boundary between late
diagenesis and onset of metamorphism.
 Age Temperature & Degree of
diagenesis
• If particulate organic matter is present, its state of
diagenesis defined by the vitrinite reflectance, is a function
of temperature and time.
• Fluid inclusions frequently occur in secondary crystals
precipitated in rock fractures or in large pores.
• Stable isotopes can be used to determine the temperature
at the time the cement mineral was formed.
• The timing of thermal events can be determined by dating
cement or recrystallized minerals containing unstable
isotopes.
• The transition from shales to slates, i.e., from deep-burial
diagenesis to low-grade metamorphism is characterized by
increasing crystallinity of muscovite .
 Porosity
• Primary porosity (syndepositionsal)
– Depositional environment
– Degree of uniformity of particle size
– Nature of rock
• Secondary porosity (post depositional)
– Fracturing
– Solution
– Redisposition and cementation
– Compactional
 Porosity
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒
Absolute porosity =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒

Effective porosity =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘
 Porosity measurement
• SP log
• Radioactive log
• Drilling time log
• Microscopic examination of well cutting.
 Permeability
• Effective permeability: For unsaturated rock
the ability of the rock to conduct that fluid in
the presence of other fluids.
• Relative permeability: For a given fluid
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑡 100% 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
 Permeability-Governing factors
• Grain size and packing.
• Hydraulic gradient
• Temperature
• Matrix and cement
• Fracturing and jointing
• Solution and redeposition
• Recrystallization
 Important
• Highly porous rock need not to be always
highly permeable.
• For development of permeability pore spaces
needs to be interconnected.
– Shale is porous than sandstone but sandstone is
more permeable than shale.