Noble gas tracing of groundwater/coalbed methane interaction in the San Juan Basin, USA

Zhou, Zheng; Ballentine, C. J.; Kipfer, Rolf; Schoell, Martin; Thibodeaux, S.

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2005.06.027

Cited by 136 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…Using these well-defined controls on noble gas concentrations in groundwater, it is possible to calculate the extent and character (i.e., fractionation) of noble gas distribution between any gas or oil phase that interacts with water, using estimates of subsurface system pressure, temperature, and salinity. These data further preserve details about the hydrocarbon/water volume ratio and whether the system is open to gas loss (Ballentine et al, 1996;Zhou et al, 2005;Barry et al, 2016). Radiogenic noble gases, which are isotopically distinct from the air-derived noble gases dissolved in water, accumulate in groundwater systems and can be used to investigate mean fluid residence (e.g., Torgersen, 2010;Aggarwal et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…By focusing on air-derived noble gases in crustal systems, diagnostic signatures can be exploited to determine mechanisms by which crustal fluids (i.e., oil and gas) form, migrate, and interact with one another (e.g., Bosch and Mazor, 1988;Ballentine et al, 1991Ballentine et al, , 1996Zhou et al, 2005;Torgersen and Kennedy, 1999;Gilfillan et al, 2009;Jung et al, 2013;Barry et el., 2016). When hydrocarbons interact with air-saturated formation water, noble gases are systematically partitioned between phases.…”

Section: Noble Gas Partitioning Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Barry

Lawson

Meurer

et al. 2017

Geology

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. (2017) 'Determining uid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases. ', Geology., 45 (9). pp. 775-778. Further information on publisher's website:https://doi.org/10.1130/G38900.1Publisher's copyright statement: c 2017 The Authors. Gold Open Access: This paper is published under the terms of the CC-BY license. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTGeochemical characteristics in subsurface fluid systems provide a wealth of information about fluid sources, migration, and storage conditions. Determining the extent of fluid interaction (aquifer-hydrocarbon connectivity) is important for oil and gas production and waste storage applications, but is not tractable using traditional seismic methods. Furthermore, the residence time of fluids is critical in such systems and can vary from tens of thousands to billions of years. Our understanding of the transport length scales in multiphase systems, while equally important, is more limited. Noble gas data from the Rotliegend natural gas field, northern Germany, are used here to determine the length scale and isolation age of the combined water-gas system. We show that geologically bound volume estimates (i.e., gas to water volume ratios) match closed-system noble gas model predictions, suggesting that the Rotliegend system has remained isolated as a closed system since hydrocarbon formation. Radiogenic helium data show that fluid isolation occurred 63-129 m.y. after rock and/or groundwater deposition (ca. 300 Ma), which is consistent with known hydrocarbon generation from 250 to 140 Ma, thus corroborating long-term geologic isolation. It is critical that we have the ability to distinguish between fluid systems that, despite phase separation, have remained closed to fluid loss from those that have lost oil or gas phases. These findings are the first to demonstrate that such systems remain isolated and fully gas retentive on time scales >100 m.y. over >10 km length scales, and have broad implications for saline aquifer CO 2 disposal site viability and hydrocarbon resource prediction, which both require an understanding of the length and time scales of crustal fluid transport pathways.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Noble Gas Partitioning Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Barry

Lawson

Meurer

et al. 2017

Geology

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“…Noble gases have also been used extensively in groundwater studies to constrain paleotemperatures (Stute et al, 1992(Stute et al, , 1995 and groundwater infiltration and recharge (Beyerle et al, 1999;Manning and Solomon, 2003;Zhou et al, 2005). Measurements of Ar and Kr isotopes in ice cores can lead to estimation of firn thickness and temperature (Craig and Wiens, 1996;Severinghaus et al, 2001Severinghaus et al, , 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A determination of air-sea gas exchange and upper ocean biological production from five noble gases and tritiugenic helium-3

Stanley¹

2007

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The five noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon) are biologically and chemically inert, making them ideal oceanographic tracers. Additionally, the noble gases have a wide range of solubilities and molecular diffusivities, and thus respond differently to physical forcing. Tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, is useful in tandem with its daughter helium-3 as a tracer for water mass ages. In this thesis, a fourteen month time-series of the five noble gases, helium-3 and tritium was measured at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site. The time-series of five noble gases was used to develop a parameterization of air-sea gas exchange for oligotrophic waters and wind speeds between 0 and 13 m s −1 that explicitly includes bubble processes and that constrains diffusive gas exchange to ± 6% and complete and partial air injection processes to ± 15%. Additionally, the parameterization is based on weeks to seasonal time scales, matching the time scales of many relevant biogeochemical cycles. The time-series of helium isotopes, tritium, argon, and oxygen was used to constrain upper ocean biological production. Specifically, the helium flux gauge technique was used to estimate new production, apparent oxygen utilization rates were used to quantify export production, and euphotic zone seasonal cycles of oxygen and argon were used to determine net community production. The concurrent use of these three methods allows examination of the relationship between the types of production and begins to address a number of apparent inconsistencies in the elemental budgets of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen.

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“…1). The CO 2 carbon isotopic 13 C/ 12 C data from selected soils with variable CO 2 content obtained during the various monitoring surveys show the CO 2 gas in soils to have relatively heterogeneous carbon isotope ratios ranging between -15 and -24‰. This range of carbon isotopic ratios is fully consistent with a biological soil origin, although not exclusively [23].…”

Section: Surface Monitoring Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…The decoupling of the evolution of reactive species and the noble gas during the life of a fluid-rock system is at the centre of the geochemical monitoring methodology presented in this paper. Although fairly well used in the case of natural gas occurrences, this tracing technique has not yet been thoroughly tested on industrial gas storage sites [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface and Subsurface Geochemical Monitoring of an EOR-CO₂Field: Buracica, Brazil

Magnier

Rouchon

Bandeira

et al. 2012

Oil Gas Sci. Technol. – Rev. IFP Energies nouvelles

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Noble gas tracing of groundwater/coalbed methane interaction in the San Juan Basin, USA

Cited by 136 publications

References 48 publications

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

A determination of air-sea gas exchange and upper ocean biological production from five noble gases and tritiugenic helium-3

Surface and Subsurface Geochemical Monitoring of an EOR-CO₂Field: Buracica, Brazil

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Noble gas tracing of groundwater/coalbed methane interaction in the San Juan Basin, USA

Cited by 136 publications

References 48 publications

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

Determining fluid migration and isolation times in multiphase crustal domains using noble gases

A determination of air-sea gas exchange and upper ocean biological production from five noble gases and tritiugenic helium-3

Surface and Subsurface Geochemical Monitoring of an EOR-CO2Field: Buracica, Brazil

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Surface and Subsurface Geochemical Monitoring of an EOR-CO₂Field: Buracica, Brazil