Chapter 3 - Compaction and Porosity Reduction in Carbonates: A Review of Observations, Theory, and Experiments

Abstract

Abstract Carbonates are major sedimentary materials found in many upper layers of the Earth’s crust. Understanding their compaction behavior is important for porosity prediction in sedimentary basins and to improve the knowledge about sealing of active faults at shallow depths, where the faults cross-cut limestone formations. In carbonates, as opposed to siliciclastic sediments, diagenesis starts at shallow depths ( So far, few experimental studies have been performed on pressure solution creep and subcritical crack growth in carbonates. Creep experiments on calcite powder and indenters experiments have shown that time-dependent compaction requires the presence of water. Even though the different controlling parameters were tested, no clear consensus exists on the rate limiting step of deformation and, consequently, on the creep law. Individual processes leading to porosity loss in carbonates are rather well identified. However, their respective importance during burial is still debated. Even at shallow burial (