Geochemical inputs for hydrological models of deep-lying sedimentary units: Loss of mineral hydration water

Abstract

Hydrological models that treat phenomena occurring deep in sedimentary piles, such as petroleum maturation and retention of chemical and radioactive waste, may require time spans of at least several million years. Many input quantities classically treated as constants will be variables on this time scale. Models sophisticated enough to include transport contributions from such processes as chemical diffusion, mineral dehydration and shale membrane behavior require considerable knowledge about regional geological history as well as the pertinent mineralogical and geochemical relationships. Simple dehydrations such as those of gypsum and halloysite occur at sharply-defined temperatures but, as with all mineral dehydration reactions, the equilibrium temperature is strongly dependent on the pore-fluid salinity and degree of overpressuring encountered in the subsurface. The dehydrations of analcime and smectite proceed by reactions involving other sedimentary minerals. The smectite reaction is crystallographically complex, yielding a succession of mixed-layered illite/smectites, and on the U.S.A. Gulf of Mexico coast continues over several million years at a particular stratigraphic interval.