Hot-spot heat generation in coal–shale deposits

Abstract

Some consequences of a known but insufficiently studied phenomenon, local heat generation in solid caustobioliths under near-surface conditions, when temperatures can be sufficient for the pyrolysis of organic matter (OM), the heating of underground waters, and even the melting of individual mineral components, were considered. A specific structural-deformation geofiltration medium (with the sections of thermally changed rocks and polygenetic breccias) is formed in the sections of the heating and burning (complete or partial) of caustobioliths, thermal conversion, and the deformations of host rock deposits. It was noted that increased permeability appears in not only thermally converted (pyrometamorphic) but also unchanged deposits (due to sagging, splitting, caving, and associated explosive degassing). The concepts of the possibility of these bodies to contain hydrocarbon components (of different genesis) at different depths. The results obtained can be useful in the forecast of the anthropogenic destabilization of the interior of the Earth due to waste storage and burial and the underground gasification of solid caustobioliths and in the studies of shale hydrocarbons.