State of stress, permeability, and fractures in the Precambrian granite of northern Illinois

Abstract

In situ fracture logging, permeability tests, and stress measurements have been conducted in UPH 3, a 1600‐m‐deep hole drilled into the Precambrian granitic basement of northern Illinois. Two major fracture zones are revealed, which cannot be discerned in UPH 2, a similarly deep hole about 1 km away. The segments of the UPH 3 core that were oriented indicate the existence of three sets of subvertical joints striking at N55°E, N40°W and E–W. These sets correspond to surface and shallow borehole joint directions in the Precambrian and Paleozoic rock of southern Wisconsin as well as other areas of the Midwest. The permeability values in UPH 3 display an overall reduction with depth from about 10−4 darcy at 700 m to 10−8–10−9 darcy at 1600 m. Permeability is highest in the zones of greatest fracturing, one of which occurs near the top of the granite and is probably related to fractures which were formed when the granite was at the surface in late Paleozoic times. Permeability reduction with depth is consistent with previous laboratory and field results in crystalline rocks. Hydrofracturing measurements in UPH 3 reveal a compressional stress field with the largest stress horizontal and oriented at N48°E (±30°). Based on linear regression of 13 test results in the depth range of 686–1449 m, the greatest horizontal stress has a magnitude of [20.5+(0.023×depth(m))] MPa. The least horizontal compression has a value of [8.7+(0.019×depth(m))] MPa. The vertical stress, based on density measurements, is given by [−1.3+(0.026xdepth(m))] MPa. Both magnitudes and directions support previous results in the technically stable Great Lakes region of the midcontinent. However, a mb = 4.4 earthquake did occur in 1972 some 90 km south of UPH 3, at a depth of 13 km. The focal mechanism solution revealed strike slip motion with the pressure axis horizontal and trending northeast, in accord with our measured stress directions and relative magnitudes but not predicted from a frictional sliding criterion based on Byerlee's law.