Weathering characteristics of the Lower Paleozoic black shale in northwestern Guizhou Province, south China

Abstract

The northwestern Guizhou in the Yangtze Craton of south China has a tremendous potential of shale gas resource. In this paper, we present results from major and trace elements, total organic carbon, mineralogical composition analysis and petrophysical parameters to characterise shale weathering features. Further, the differences of black shale between underground and outcrops have also been presented to examine the changes of black shale after weathering. Our results show that the trace elements of shale have varying degrees of loss in the weathering leaching process, both in Niutitang shale and Longmaxi shale, the loss of B, V, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ba is obvious, but the element migration quantity in the former is greater than in the latter. Decomposition of minerals such as pyrite, feldspar and calcite result in the leaching of Na, Ca, Mg and Fe. The loss rate of total organic carbon (TOC) in black shales ranges from 18% to 70% with an average of 43%; moreover, the loss of organic carbon in samples with high TOC content is larger than in those samples with low TOC content. Results following the testing of porosity and permeability show that porosity increases significantly after weathering but permeability changes little. Furthermore, the increment of porosity is greater in the Niutitang shale (with more sulphide minerals) than in the Longmaxi shale, suggesting that the oxidation of sulphide minerals may have led to the formation of an acidic environment, causing the other minerals in the black shale to weather more quickly, thus resulting in increased porosity. The content of clay minerals in the core samples is slightly lesser than the outcrop samples, but the TOC content in the core samples is greater and has a larger specific surface area. This suggest that the TOC content played a decisive role on the specific surface area of shale. In addition, changes in the black shale caused by the weathering process mainly depend on the mineral composition and the TOC content in shale. In this study, we try to establish relations between outcrop samples and core samples, in order to better understand the underground characteristics of shale reservoir.