Seminario - New horizons in shale sedimentology - How experimental advances allow a new look at the rock record
Relatore: Juergen Schieber, Indiana State University (USA), Department of Geological Sciences I Martedì 16 Maggio 2023 – ore 16:30 | Aula Arduino
16.05.2023
Mud is the main substrate for the microbial biomass of Earth, and as such is intricately woven in with biogeochemical cycles that exert control on the composition of atmosphere and ocean. For petroleum systems, mudstones are essential as source rocks and seals, and more recently also as unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. In contemporary petroleum geology mudstones are a key resource that we need to be able to read accurately if we are to make correct predictions about the economic viability of hydrocarbon production in sedimentary basins. The first step towards that goal is to abandon long held notions about mud accumulation and embracing new emerging paradigms about energetic and dynamic mud transport and depositional processes. Experimental studies are the key towards that end, and they will be the focus of this presentation. We will examine key experimental studies, their functional premises and experimental outcomes, and what we learn from them about how mudstones may have formed in the past.
