Integrated Geophysical Methods to Characterize Triassic Microbialites

Abstract

Summary The recent discovery of significant hydrocarbon reserves in microbial carbonate reservoirs from the Cretaceous Pre-salt layers in the Santos Basin (Brazil) has renewed the interest in the study of modern and ancient microbialite deposits. Understand the factors controlling the facies heterogeneities and depositional processes involved in microbial carbonate formation can help to build refined predictive models of reservoir distribution and connectivity for the oil industry. Therefore, the access to well-preserved and well-exposed microbial carbonate outcrops is essential to integrate sedimentological and geophysical data to be used for the exploration and production of analogous subsurface microbialite reservoirs. Despite the increasing interest in understanding microbialite heterogeneity, few studies have used geophysical methods to characterize the complex morphologies attained by these deposits in outcrops.In the present study, we carried out a near surface geophysics survey to test the validity of geophysical methodologies in the characterization of complex stromatolite structures in outcrops from the Middle Triassic of the Catalan Basin (NE Spain).