A study of the relationship between permeability distributions and small scale sedimentary features in a fluvial formation

Abstract

This study focuses on styles of small-scale heterogeneity found in fluvial sand and soil bodies. Over 1,700 in situ measurements of air permeability were taken in an outcrop-based study which joins observations of sedimentary features with their associated permeability distributions. The relationship between sedimentology and hydrologic parameters provides a geologic framework to assess geostatistical hypotheses. The soils in the study area are found to have a significantly lower permeability than the channel sand deposits. The soil deposits showed a significant lack of observable small scale sedimentary structures, which is reflected in the experimental variograms. The permeability distribution in these study sites appears to be adequately represented by a continuous gaussian random field model. The presence of calcium carbonate nodules in the soils is related to the permeability distribution. Correlation lengths in the channel sands perpendicular to stratigraphy are significantly shorter than those observed parallel to stratigraphy. A sedimentological, bounding surfaces model is evaluated with regard to permeability distributions. In deposits of little sedimentary structure, the mean and variance may adequately characterize the permeability distribution. Where significant sedimentary structure exists, the bounding surfaces model can be used to determine the scales of variability present in the permeability distribution and may also be used to infer an appropriate choice of random field model.