CORRELATION BETWEEN ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY AND ANISOTROPIC ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF PIERRE SHALE, WATTENBURG FIELD, COLORADO

In microscopic scale, many shale rocks are composed of ”clay-water composites” which are packages of clay sheets separated by bound water and with significant elastic anisotropic properties. In addition to significant elastic properties, these clay-water composites have high electrical conductivity. This study aims to investigate if the concentration and alignment of clay-water composites in shale rocks cause correlated electrical and elastic effects.

Using a novel approach to the joint P- and SV-wave slowness-polarization method, local anisotropy parameters around the receiver array in a VSP (vertical seismic profile) well are determined. The study VSP well is located at Wattenberg Field, Colorado. Due to evidence from VSP data about the presence of orthorhombic anisotropy at some levels, the joint slowness-polarization method is applied in two symmetry planes. The joint P- and SV-wave slowness-polarization method yields a very accurate measurement of seismic anisotropy parameters δ and η.

The estimated anisotropy parameter η (also called anellipticity parameter) from one of the symmetry planes shows a high correlation with the borehole resistivity log especially at Pierre Shale. The study suggests that the bound water between clay sheets causes the high correlation between elastic and electrical properties. As mentioned before, this phenomena has been expected and described at a microscopic scale, but in this study it is seen in a seismic scale for the first time.

Handouts

GSA_2015_Presentation_Naser_Tamimi_final.pdf (1.1 MB)

Session No. 326

Geophysics/Geodynamics

Wednesday, 4 November 2015: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM

Room 322/323 (Baltimore Convention Center)

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 47, No. 7, p.825

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