Mudrocks, Gas Shales, & Clay Minerals for Geologists & Engineers

Mudrocks, Gas Shales, & Clay Minerals for Geologists & Engineers

This cour se exa mines the or igins, compositions, and pr oper ties of mu dr ocks (shale, claystone, siltstone, mudstone …) with a focus on clay miner alogy and gas shales.  Discussions include delineation and char acter ization of both detr ital and hemipelagic fine-gr ained heter ogeneou s siliciclastic-r ich sequences.  Par ticipants will do exer cises that r epr esent pr actical issues and pr ob lems.    The  exer cises  will  be  facilitated  with  r eal-time  class  use  of  a  lithology-based petr op hysical softwar e package (GAMLS).  Ea ch student needs to br ing a PC laptop for class work.  Installation of executables and upload of files will be done at least one week pr ior to star t of class (to minimize class time logistics issues).  Minimum computer r equir ements:   4

GB RAM (Windows 7 and >4 GB RAM highly pr efer r ed) plus Excel.

Outline :

1.    Mudrocks - Definitions, Classifications, Origins

2.    Clay Minerals - Structure, Classification, Properties

3.    Gas Shales - Origins, Characteristics, Properties

4.    Gas Shales - Petrophysics

5.    Gas Shales - Free Gas vs Adsorbed Gas

6.    Mudrocks - Mineralogic Characterization & Bulk Rock Modeling

7.    Mudrocks & Gas Shales in Sequence Stratigraphy & Correlation

8.    Water Saturation, Capillary Pressure, Fluids & Fluid Pressures

9.    Fractures – Concepts and Unknowns