The porosity trend and pore sizes of the rocks in the continental crust of the earth: Evidence from experimental data on permeability

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The depth trends of permeability are constructed from the measurements of the tight rocks typical of the basement of the continental crust at temperatures up to 600°C and pressures up to 200 MPa. It is established that the permeability decreases with depth. The statistical processing of the experimental data yielded the generalized dependence logk = −12.6-3.23H 0.223. The method is suggested and, based on the experimental data on permeability, the estimates are obtained for the effective diameters of the pore channels and effective porosity at the PT parameters corresponding to the in situ deep zones of the continental crust. It is found that porosity decreases with depth, while distinct depth dependence of the pore sizes is not observed. The dependence of porosity on the depth is approximated by the relationship logφ = −0.65–0.1H + 0.0019H 2. The porosity is estimated at a few percent for a depth of 10 km with a decline to 0.01–0.1% at 35 km. The estimates of porosity retrieved from the experimental data agree with the theoretical calculations based on the present-day ideas of the structure of the discrete media and with the results of magnetotelluric sounding. Thus, according to three independent estimates, the porosity of the rocks of the continental crust decreases with depth. At the same time, in both the intermediate and lower crust there are intervals where the porosity values suggest the presence of fluid-saturated horizons at these depths.