SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS

DAY 2 – Section 3(d) AEOLIAN

Petroskills OGCI, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Honorary Lecturer, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K.

(MSc Petroleum Geology and MSc Hydrocarbon Enterprise)

Honorary Lecturer, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K.

(MSc Oil and Gas Engineering)

Director, Deep Marine, 9 North Square, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K.

bryan@deep-marine.com
1
Aeolian Environments
Classification of aeolian deposystems

Global desert classification

 Aeolian (Eolian) Processes: effects on
texture (reservoir quality)
• Erosion: must entrain (lift)
grains with wind. This is
difficult to do for fine-
grained or moist sediment
(5% moisture and you
cannot lift). So playas and
interdune areas resist
erosion
• Transportation once
entrained, sediments
(fines) easy to move
 Sand grains may move by suspension, saltation or creep
Suspension (long term: dust <20 microm – short term: loess 20-60 microm)
 Transportation in Desert Environments

• Suspension is either short term or long

term
• Saltation: sediment grain is lifted
(entrained), accelerated by wind, dropped
back at angle, dislodges 10 or more
grains, etc – feedback loop; 90% 60cm
above ground. Requires 29x velocity of
water
 Sand blasting effects of sand saltation
clouds
• Sand blasting is restricted
to the upper 1m of
saltation clouds
• They will form multi-
faceted objects, but only
the upper surfaces are
affected
• Produce ventifacts
(‘dreikanter’): lags in
aeolian or reworked by
fluvial
Saltation is faster over rough ground
e.g. interdunes or deflation lags

This encourages dune initiation as it

makes sand patches slow down
Aeolian Processes - structures

Ripples
Sand sheets
Dunes/Draas and interdune areas
Lakes
 Ripples: form in minutes

Asymmetric and perpendicular to wind direction

Preservation depends on angle of climb (like current ripples on Day 1): depends on
rate of sediment supply, transport rate and sorting

Produces: wind ripple lamination: inversely graded of bimodal, with finer

grains preserved in the toughs (saltation)
-maybe finer grained at the base, with thin laminae (mm or even only two layers!)
-cross lamination uncommon slip face too small)
Fair porosity (15%), poor permeability (1.2 mD)

example from Dr Colin North

University of Aberdeen, pers comm
Wind ripple lamination
 Aeolian Erosion
• = Deflation lags
• Selective entrainment and transport of
fines
• Coarse sediment remains: Leaves ‘lag’
behind
• Happens in the absence of adequate sand
supply
Deflation Lag
 Aeolian Mineralogy – is it distinctive?

Common misconceptions:
 That aeolian sand can only be quartz, that it is
mature and well rounded
 That it rarely contains salt, carbonate grains
 That it rarely contains mica and other long-axis
minerals (as these cannot saltate)

Reasoning: Long transport distance, only quartz

will survive
(North, C.P., University of Aberdeen pers comm)
 Aeolian Mineralogy – is it distinctive?

More common misconceptions:

• That aeolian sand is well rounded and well-
sorted
 Aeolian Sand Texture

Penrith Sandstone Fm (Triassic) Cutler Sandstone Fm (Permian)

NOT all well-rounded (commonly angular to sub-rounded)

Depends on source of sediment, whether it is recycled, mineralogy etc

Grains over 1mm more angular (not saltating as much)

Transport pathways usually short example from Dr Colin North
University of Aberdeen, pers comm
Compression: acceleration
Expansion: deposition
Grainflow slipface in modern barchan. Oman.
Advancing barchans, more a feature of areas with a net sand deficit and moderate
prevailing winds. Oman.
Crestal spacing of the largest dunes ~1.5km. overlying saline interdune regions. Oman.
Relationship between aeolian erg, alluvial fans and interdune areas. larger dunes in
the central area have crestal spacing of ~1.5km. Oman.
50% of all dunes on planet are simple linear dunes
 Complex Linear Dunes
(Wahiba, Oman)

Form in areas with Bimodal winds Photo: Prof Ken Glennie

University of Aberdeen
Cm scale feathered contact between amalgamated grain flow laminae with poor
packing and high poro perm (upper darker sand) and better sorted couplet of
better packed, lower poro perm, wind ripple laminae (lower lighter sand).
 Grain Flow laminae

Porosity: 30% ; Permeability: 690 mD (example from Dr Colin North, Uni of Aberdeen)
C.P.North
Regular Lamination thickness, probably seasonal?
Incorporation of coarse fluvial sediment in wind-ripple deposits –
Rotliegend Hyde Field (Permian), North Sea.Sediments in the
core shown to the left are aeolian wind-ripple deposits.
Incorporated with them are layers of coarser fluvial sediments
deflated from underlying fluvial deposits.
Scale: Gradations shown in centimetres. Well deviated, arrows
indicate corrected up direction.

From: Sweet, M. L. (1997)

SWEET, M. L. (1997) 'Rotliegend core from the 48/6-34 well, Hyde

Field, Southern Gas Basin', in OAKMAN, C. D., MARTIN, J. H.
and CORBETT, P. W. M. (eds.) Cores from the Northwest
European Hydrocarbon Province: An illustration of geological
applications from exploration to development, The Geological
Society, London, pp.73-78.
Aeolian dunes, Devonian, western Ireland
Desiccated silts being engulfed by encroaching dunes. Death Valley
 : 38% of aeolian

Periodically flooded: no time for dune formation (days to centuries);

Sediment supply limited; Sediment too coarse; Water table too high;
Too much vegetation
Stratigraphic trap accumulation
Oilfields may be found at the boundary between related facies

Or in diagenic associations between e.g. sabkha salt flats

North Sea Permian Sedimentary Basins
Fossilized dune surface, Rottleigend Sands, Permian, Co Durham, England
20m high fluid escape from Dunes in Moray Firth area
(photo: Prof Ken Glennie)
Small dune created sub-aerially in a glass tank. Water has risen preferentially by
capilliary action along the finer grained laminae, leaving pore spaces of coarser sands
air-filled. Dune is 38cm high.

Flooding of sand dunes by Zechstein transgression: Prof Ken Glennie, Univ. of Aberdeen