Abstract
Thermal conductivity is a very important parameter for understanding the present and past thermal regimes of sedimentary basins. The bulk thermal conductivity of sedimentary rocks depends mainly on three factors: (1) their mineralogic and fluid composition, (2) their temperature, and (3) their structure. As shown by a series of measurements on small-scale isotropic samples, the effects of mineralogy and fluid content can be estimated quite accurately using the geometric mean model. However, this estimate does not take into account a possible anisotropy related to various structural effects such as small-scale heterogeneity or crystalline orientation. This anisotropy effect seems especially important in the case of clayey formations: various observations using equilibrium temperature logging, together with classical well logs, can be interpreted as indicating such an effect. The effect appears to depend on depth as would be expected from the major changes occurring in clays during their burial history: compaction, mineralogical transformation and structural reorganization.
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