Abstract: Primary and Secondary Controls on Permeability in a Cross-Stratified Sandstone: Implications for the Correlation of Diagenetic, Structural and Textural Characteristics with Laboratory based Permeability Upscaling Measurements

CHAPIN, JR., D. MICHAEL, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Socorro, NM

The Massillon Sandstone Member of the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation, Stark County, northeastern Ohio, is a fluvial, cross-stratified, fine- to coarse-grained, sublitharenite. A permeability data set has been compiled on a meter scale block of this sandstone by exhaustively measuring single-phase permeability using a computer controlled gas minipermeameter. This unique, laboratory based investigation of permeability upscaling is performed by compressing specifically designed tip seals across the flat, cube surfaces. Inner tip seal diameters of 0. 15, 0.31, 0.63, 1.27, and 2.54 cm are used to establish known boundary conditions on the sandstone surface and to define the measurement scale. Petrographic data obtained from thin sections of the sandstone cube suggest that compaction, as well as the precipitation of authigenic iron oxide and quartz cements acted to reduce permeability, whereas secondary porosity created by the dissolution of these cements and detrital grains locally increased permeability. Areas between cross-bed foresets have the highest permeability and porosity values, whereas the lowest values were recorded from sharp, first and second order reactivation and bounding surfaces. Outcrop and thin section scale textural characteristics, such as increased sorting and average grain size, positively correlate with higher permeability values recorded by the automated gas permeameter.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90931©1998 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid