Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1985. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1985. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-78).

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. September, 2017. / This study investigates the mineralogical, petrographic and geochemical characteristics of target rocks and impact-formed breccias (impactites) intersected by the 368 m long M4 drillcore located 18 km NNW from the estimated centre of the 145 ± 2 Ma, Morokweng impact structure (MIS), South Africa. M4 is the only core from the central parts of the Morokweng impact structure not to intersect fractionated granophyric impact melt directly beneath 35-100 m of Cenozoic Kalahari Group sediments. Instead it intersects highly fractured, cataclased and shocked, crystalline target rocks that are cut by mm- to m-scale melt-matrix breccia and suevite dykes. The target rocks comprise granitic, granodioritic, trondhjemitic and dioritic Archaean gneisses, metadolerite and dolerite. The gneisses and metadolerite show signs of quartz veining and metasomatism linked to localised mylonitic to brittle fault deformation that predated the impact. The suevite and meltmatrix breccia dykes make up ~10% of the core. All rocks show signs of low-T hydrothermal effects that occurred after the impact. The target rocks contain a complex network of shear fractures that contain cataclasite and which grade into monomict lithic breccia. The cataclasite contains shocked mineral fragments, which indicates that the shear fracturing postdated the initial shock stage of the impact. The melt-matrix breccia and suevite dykes show signs that they intruded along the fractures, although there is also evidence that shear fracturing continued after quenching of the melt. This suggests that the intrusion of the dykes overlapped the brittle deformation of the target rocks. Shock features in the M4 core lithologies include planar fractures, feather features, decorated planar deformation features (PDF), mosaic extinction and toasting in quartz; oblique lamellae, reduced birefringence and patchy (mosaic) extinction in plagioclase, and chevron-style spindleshaped lamellae in microcline, as well as kink bands in biotite and planar fractures in titanite and zircon. Universal Stage measurements of PDF sets in quartz from 8 target rocks and 6 impactite dykes revealed four dominant sets: 0°(0001), 22.95°{ 3 1 10 }, 17.62°{ 4 1 10 }, 32.42°{ 2 1 10 }; with no significant change in shock intensity with depth nor significant differences in PDF orientations or intensity between melt-matrix breccias, suevites and target rocks. Based on these observations the average peak shock pressures are estimated at 10 - 25 GPa. Apart from one suevite dyke that contains exotic clasts and an unusual bulk composition, all suevite and melt-matrix breccia dykes show major, trace and REE compositions and lithic and mineral clasts that indicate that they were formed from the target rocks found in the M4 core. The individual impactite dykes show good compositional correlation with their wallrocks, which supports limited transport of the melt and suevite. This is also supported by evidence of small-scale variation of the melt composition in the melt-matrix breccias, which indicates that not enough time was available for complete mixing to happen. The similarity in matrix composition and in lithic and mineral clast types in the melt-matrix breccias to their wallrocks, is consistent with a friction melt origin. These dykes are thus interpreted as pseudotachylite. Macroscopic and microscopic evidence suggests that the melts intruded cataclasite-filled fractures and that interfingering and infolding between the melts and incohesive cataclasite allowed the melt to assimilate cataclasite. The melt clasts in the suevite show the same composition and clast features as the melt-matrix breccias. Based on this evidence it is proposed that the melt clasts in the suevite in the M4 core are fragments of quenched pseudotachylite that became separated and mechanically mixed into the cataclasite matrix when movement continued along the cataclasite-bearing fractures after the melt quenched. This was possible because the cataclasite was still incohesive and because strong vertical and horizontal displacements of the entire M4 sequence happened during the crater modification stage of the impact, possibly for 1-2 minutes after the impact. The melt-matrix breccias are compositionally distinct from the Morokweng granophyric impact-melt rock intersected in the other central borehole cores. Melt particles are pervasively hydrothermally altered to a secondary mineral assemblage of zeolites and smectites, attributed to impact-induced hydrothermal fluid circulation in the MIS. The upper parts of the core are marked by abundant haematite but in the deeper levels of the core, chlorite-epidote-andradite garnet is found, which may indicate a vertically-zoned hydrothermal system after the impact. The hydrothermal effects also explain the abundance of decorated PDF in shocked quartz grains and the lack of glass in the PDF in quartz. The 10-25 GPa shock levels in the target rocks support them lying close to the transient crater floor and initially close (<10 km) to the point of impact. The high structural position of the rocks relative to the impact-melt sheet suggests that the M4 sequence represents part of the peak ring of the Morokweng impact structure. The rocks of the peak ring would have experienced strong vertical and centrifugal displacement during the crater excavation and modification stages, which can explain the intense shear fracturing and cataclasis, brecciation and friction melting as well as the strong block movements that could disrupt and disperse the pseudotachylite melt dykes to produce suevite. A peak ring radius of 18 km would suggest that the original Morokweng crater rim diameter would have been >70 km, but between 1 and 2 km of post-impact erosion before the deposition of the Kalahari Group means that this could be a minimum estimate. / LG2018

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Carlos Torres-Verdín. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

In this work, an application of the algebraic reconstruction technique to a borehole reconstruction problem is considered. The formulation of the borehole problem gives the attendant electromagnetic wave equations in matrix form. The algebraic reconstruction technique is used to reconstruct a solution. Three sources of errors are identified in the reconstruction process. Suggestions are made which will help minimize or predict the effects of these errors. General limitations of the algebraic reconstruction technique are discussed. The limitations in terms of the borehole problem are explained. Practical limitations for the borehole problem are thus obtained and quantified mathematically. It is found that even in some practical situations, the borehole reconstruction process is impossible.

Boreholes in the vicinity of a nuclear waste repository must be reliably sealed to prevent rapid migration of radionuclide contaminated water from the vicinity of the repository to the accessible environment. Few data currently exist regarding the effectiveness of borehole sealing. The objective of this research was to assess the performance of borehole seals under laboratory conditions, particularly with regard to varying stress fields. The approach used to evaluate borehole seals was to compare flow through a sealed borehole with flow through intact rock. Granite, basalt, and tuff were tested, using either cement or bentonite as the seal material. The main conclusions reached as a result of the experiments is that currently existing materials are capable of forming high quality seals when placed under laboratory conditions. Variation of triaxial stress state about a borehole does not significantly affect seal performance if the rock is stiffer than the seal material. Temperature/moisture variations (drying) degraded the quality of cement seals significantly. Performance partially recovered upon resaturation. A skillfully sealed borehole may reasonably be expected to be as impermeable as a fractured rock mass (subject to site-specific verification). The influence of relative seal-rock permeabilities provides insight into important seal parameters. A plug one order of magnitude greater in permeability than the rock through which it passes resulted in an increase in flow through the borehole and surrounding rock of only 1 1/2 times as compared to the undisturbed rock. Since a sealed borehole and its surrounding rock are only a small part of the total rock mass, the effect is even less pronounced. One of the simplest ways to decrease flow through a seal-rock system is to increase the length of the seal. Significant remaining questions include field emplacement techniques; field vertification of plug quality; plug performance over long time periods, particularly with respect to temperature/moisture variations and chemical stability; and radionuclide sorption capabilities. Scale effects are also important, as shafts and drifts must be sealed as well as larger diameter boreholes.

Acoustic, electromagnetic (EM), and nuclear open-hole measurements are affected by fluids saturating near-wellbore porous and permeable rock formations, including hydrocarbons, water, and mud filtrate. Fluid invasion effects can be quantified and advantageously used to estimate petrophysical properties of the invaded rock formations. This dissertation incorporates the physics of water-base mud- (WBM) and oil-base mud- (OBM) filtrate invasion to the simulation and inversion of borehole EM measurements. We assume vertical boreholes penetrating clastic hydrocarbon- or water-bearing formations subject to either WBM- or OBM-filtrate invasion. The simulation of EM measurements in the presence of mud-filtrate invasion considers three different approaches: (1) piston-like invasion profiles, where we solely consider invaded- (flushed) and virgin- (uncontaminated) zones, (2) two-phase immiscible displacement and salt mixing between the invading WBM filtrate and connate water, and (3) invasion of single or multi-component OBM-filtrate into a formation saturated with multiple hydrocarbon components wherein the individual components are first-contact miscible. The last two approaches honor the physics of mudcake growth as well as the petrophysical properties that govern the process of multi-phase, multi-component fluid-flow displacement and include the presence of irreducible, capillary-bound and movable water. Electromagnetic measurements are simulated from spatial distributions of electrical resistivity calculated from the simulations of mud-filtrate invasion using clean- or shaly-sand water-saturationresistivity models. Inversion of petrophysical properties is posed as the nonlinear minimization of quadratic objective functions that quantify the misfit between EM measurements and their simulations. In the case of WBM piston-like invasion profiles in water-bearing formations, combined inversion of array-induction resistivity and spontaneous potential (SP) measurements yields connate water electrical resistivity and Archie’s cementation exponent. Permeability is calculated from the inversion of array-induction resistivity measurements assuming immiscible fluid-flow displacement of WBM into hydrocarbonbearing formations. Accurate reconstructions of layer-by-layer permeability are primarily constrained by the availability of a-priori information about time of invasion, rate of mud-filtrate invasion, overbalance pressure, capillary pressure, and relative permeability. This dissertation also quantifies the influence of petrophysical and fluid properties on borehole resistivity measurements acquired in the presence of compositional mixing of OBM filtrate invading partially hydrocarbon-saturated rock formations. Numerical simulations of OBM-filtrate invasion are performed with an adaptive-implicit compositional formulation that allows one to quantify the effects of additional components of mud-filtrate and native fluids on EM measurements. Perturbations of petrophysical and fluid properties enable the quantification of rock wettability changes due to OBM-filtrate invasion and their effect on the simulated induction resistivity measurements. Finally, simulations of induction resistivity measurements in the presence of OBM are compared to the corresponding measurements in the presence of WBMfiltrate invasion. The latter analysis allows us to estimate a realistic flow rate of OBMfiltrate invasion that is responsible for the variation of induction resistivity measurements as a function of their radial length of response. The combined simulation of the physics of mud-filtrate invasion and EM measurements provides reliable estimates of true formation resistivity and hence of water saturation, thereby improving the assessment of in-place hydrocarbons reserves. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.