--> Abstract: Recent Carbonate Mound Systems: A Window to Understand Ancient Cold-Water Carbonate Reservoirs, by Anneleen Foubert, Jean-Pierre Henriet, and Philippe Lapointe; #90082 (2008)

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Recent Carbonate Mound Systems: A Window to Understand Ancient Cold-Water Carbonate Reservoirs

Anneleen Foubert1, Jean-Pierre Henriet2, and Philippe Lapointe1
1CSTJF, TOTAL, Pau Cedex, France
2RCMG, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Recent carbonate mounds are an important feature along the continental margins. They can not be neglected in recent cool-water carbonate systems. The presence of carbonate mounds W of Ireland (Porcupine Seabight) is already known since the nineties. Similar mound structures are present off Larache (Morocco). Scientific and industrial surveys reveal each year new mound structures. However, the concept of carbonate mounds is not new in the geological history and many ancient carbonate mounds were discovered and described in the past.

The principal aim of the present study is twofold, focusing in a first phase on the nature of the recent carbonate mound record, and secondly discussing its significance and interest to understand carbonate reservoirs and ancient mound records. During IODP Exp. Leg 307 the internal structure of one specific carbonate mound, i.e. Challenger Mound (Porcupine Seabight) was successfully unveiled. The 155 m high mound started to grow between ~2.7-2.5 Ma and is built from bottom to top of cold-water coral fragments embedded in an alternating carbonate-rich to siliciclastic matrix. This creates a cyclicity which is considered to be driven by glacial-interglacial changes. However, early differential diagenesis overprints the primary environmental signals.

The processes learnt from recent carbonate mound studies play a primordial role to understand ancient carbonate mound systems and their reservoir interests. What are their structural and basinal settings? Which palaeo-environmental parameters controls mound growth? Are the cyclic records observed in recent carbonate mounds a primary template to understand reservoir compartmentalization? What is the impact of early diagenesis on carbonate dissolution, precipitation, dolomitization, porosity and permeability? What are the implications of fluid migration pathways in mounds on reservoir connectivity?

AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 © AAPG Search and Discovery