Mechanical compaction of deeply buried sandstones of the North Sea

Abstract

Sandstones experience mechanical compaction when the overburden load exceeds the compressive strength. Petrographic evidence is rarely sufficient to determine the timing of mechanical compaction. It is often assumed from indirect evidence, such as regional porosity-depth trends, that mechanical compaction is a process that occurs exclusively during shallow or intermediate burial (<2.5 km). However, mechanical compaction, with or without extensive grain fracturing, may also affect more deeply buried sediments.Mechanical compaction without grain fracturing may occur at depth following pervasive framework grain dissolution and/or if anomalously high porosity has been preserved due to the presence of small amounts of cement. We describe examples from the Fulmar Sandstone Formation of the Central Graben, North Sea that experienced late stage mechanical compaction following sponge spicule dissolution and microcrystalline quartz cementation.Deep burial mechanical compaction involving grain crushing may occur if the rate of grain-contact quartz dissolution and/or quartz overgrowth development cannot compete with the rate of stress increase at grain contacts. Some Rotliegendes sandstones of the Southern North Sea that have been buried to>4.5 km offer a good example where the suppression of chemical compaction, due to the presence of grain-coating clays, resulted in pervasive grain fracturing.Mineral veins are frequently associated with sandstones that have experienced pervasive mechanical compaction during deep burial. These may reflect the sudden development of overpressure resulting from the transfer of load to the fluid during collapse of the sandstone framework.