Present-day stress orientation in the Molasse Basin

Abstract

The present-day state of stress in Western Europe is considered to be controlled by forces acting at the plate boundaries. It is assumed that the Alpine orogen only influence the regional pattern of present-day stress in Western Europe within the Alps themselves. We examine the present-day maximum horizontal stress orientation in the Molasse Basin in the Alpine foreland in order to investigate the possible influence of the Alps on the far-field stress pattern of Western Europe. Four-arm caliper and image logs were analysed in 137 wells, in which a total of 1348 borehole breakouts and 59 drilling-induced fractures were observed in 98 wells in the German Molasse Basin. The borehole breakouts and drilling-induced fractures reveal that stress orientations are highly consistent within the Molasse Basin and that the present-day maximum horizontal stress orientation rotates from N–S in southeast Germany (002°N ± 19°) to approximately NNW–SSE in southwest Germany and the Swiss Molasse Basin (150°N ± 24°). The present-day maximum horizontal stress orientation in the Molasse Basin is broadly perpendicular to the strike of the Alpine front, indicating that the stress pattern is probably controlled by gravitational potential energy of Alpine topography rather than by plate boundary forces. The present-day maximum horizontal stress orientations determined herein have important implications for the production of hydrocarbons and geothermal energy in the German Molasse Basin, in particular that hydraulically-induced fractures are likely to propagate N–S and that wells deviated to the north or south may have reduced wellbore instability problems.