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Structural Traps

There are three basic forms of a structural trap in petroleum geology:

Anticline Trap
Fault Trap
Salt Dome Trap

The common link between these three is simple: some part of the earth has moved in the
past, creating an impedence to oil flow.

Anticline Trap
An anticline is an example of rocks which were previously flat, but have been bent into
an arch. Oil that finds its way into a reservoir rock that has been bent into an arch will
flow to the crest of the arch, and get stuck (provided, of course, that there is a trap rock
above the arch to seal the oil in place).

A cross section of the Earth showing


typical Anticline Traps. Reseroir rock
that isn't completely filled with oil also
contains large amounts of salt water.

Fault Trap
Fault traps are formed by movement of rock along a fault line. In some cases, the
reservoir rock has moved opposite a layer of impermeable rock. The impermeable rock
thus prevents the oil from escaping. In other cases, the fault itself can be a very effective
trap. Clays within the fault zone are smeared as the layers of rock slip past one another.
This is known as fault gouge.

A cross section of rock showing a fault


trap - in this case, an example of
gouge. This is because the reservoir
rock on both sides of the fault would
be connected, if not for the fault
seperating the two. In this example, it
is the fault itself that is trapping the oil.
Click here to see an example of
another fault trap

Salt Dome Trap


Salt is a peculiar substance. If you put enough heat and pressure on it, the salt will slowly
flow, much like a glacier that slowly but continually moves downhill. Unike glaciers, salt
which is buried kilometers below the surface of the Earth can move upward until it
breaks through to the Earth's surface, where it is then dissolved by ground- and rainwater. To get all the way to the Earth's surface, salt has to push aside and break through
many layers of rock in its path. This is what ultimately will create the oil trap.

Here we see salt that has moved up


through the Earth, punching through
and bending rock along the way. Oil
can come to rest right up against the
salt, which makes salt an effective trap
rock. However, many times, the salt
chemically changes the rocks next to it
in such a way that oil will no longer
seep into them. In a sense, it destroys
the porosity of a reservoir rock.

Structural Traps - the Thrust fault


Thrust faulting occurs when one section of the Earth is pushed up and over another
section, and they most often occur in areas where two continental plates are running into
one another. However, the photos below show sediments that were deposited by glaciers
only 10,000 years ago, and these sediments were then run over by a glacial readvance.
When the glacier moved back over the sediments, faulting occured. Can you see the
faults below?

Now let's draw the faults and rock horizons in, and show how, if the conditions were
right, oil might become trapped in this rock. If the rock between the yellow and red lines
were sandstone, and rock beneath the red and above the yellow lines were shale, a trap
might be set up in this way:

See how the oil gets trapped by the shale above it, as well as by the fault and the shale to
the left of it? Of course, this outcrop is only a couple of meters wide, there really is no oil
here, and the layers that we've assigned to the rock are mostly imaginary in this case. But
the point is, this is exactly how many structural traps are set up below the Earth's surface.
Here, we are lucky enough to see it right in front of our very eyes.

Step 6 - Seal/Trap Rock


Because of the great amount of pressure thousands of feet beneath the earth's surface, oil
tries to move to areas of less pressure. If it is allowed, it will move upwards until it is
above ground. This is what happens at oil seeps (once common in Pennsylvania,
California, Texas and Louisiana, among other places). While these seeps tell us there is
oil below ground, it also tells us that much oil has already escaped, and it may mean that
there isn't much left to find. Unlike a reservoir rock, which acts like a sponge, trap rocks
act like walls and ceilings, and will not allow fluids to move through. The most common
trap rock is shale, which, when compared to many sandstones, has very little room inside
for fluids (oil, for example) to move through it.
Though trap rocks block oil from moving through them, they don't always block oil from
moving around them. For a trap rock to do its job, we need some kind of geologic trap.

This is what a trap rock would look like


through a magnifying lens. The yellow
objects represent clay particles that are
packed together. Notice the very small
amount of space between the clay
particles. A similar situation would be if
you took individual playing cards and
laid them flat on top of one another there would be very little space in
between. Because there is no space
between clay particles, oil will not move
through this rock - instead, it will be
blocked. Compare this rock to a
reservoir rock .

Suggested Exercise
Take 2 pieces (10" x 10") of fine mesh screen, and put a bucket under both. On one
screen, smear some mud (as pure as possible). On another, smear sand. While still wet,
take a glass of water. Pour half of the water on the screen with sand, and watch it drip
through. Do the same with the muddy screen.
Why the difference?
Which rock (shale - made out of hardened clay, or sandstone - made out of hardened and
cemented sand) do you suppose would "suck up" oil? Which rock do you suppose would
block oil from moving through (thereby "trapping" it into place)?

Step 5 - Traps
Beneath the earth's surface, oil will ooze through rocks if there is enough space between
them, but this oil will not accumulate into large quantities unless something traps it in a
particular place. There are a variety of geologic traps, which themselves can be broken
into categories:
Structural trap types: anticline, fault, salt
Stratigraphic trap types: unconformity, lens, pinch-out
Combination traps

It is important to remember that oil is not all by itself in some sort of underground cave,
but is, instead, contained within solid rock - which has enough room within it to actually
soak up (or become soaked in, however you look at it) oil.

Step 4 - Reservoir Rock


All the oil created by the source rock won't be useful unless it winds up being stored in an
easily accessible container, a rock that has room to "suck it up". A reservoir rock is a
place that oil migrates to and is held underground. A sandstone has plenty of room inside
itself to trap oil, just like a sponge has room inside of itself to soak up spills in your
kitchen. It is for this reason that sandstones are the most common reservoir rocks.
Limestones and dolostones, some of which are the skeletal remains of ancient coral reefs,
are other examples of reservoir rocks.

Here we see what a reservoir rock


would look like through a magnifying
lens. The yellow objects represent sand
grains that are packed together. Notice,
however, the purple areas between the
sand grains. These areas (also known as
"pore spaces") are where the oil fits into
the rock. In a very "porous" rock (one
with many pore spaces), oil can move
freely through these spaces. Compare
this rock to a trap rock.

Step 3- Sediment Maturation


Given many thousands of years, a stack of mud and organic remains many kilometers
thick may pile up on the sea floor, especially in nutrient-rich waters. Given enough time,
the overlying sediments that are constantly being deposited will bury these organic
remains and mud so deeply that they will eventually be turned into solid rock. It is
believed that high heat and intense pressure help along various chemical reactions,
transforming the soft parts of ancient organisms found in the deep-sea sludge into oil and
natural gas. At this point, this ooze at the bottom of the ocean turns into source rock.

Step 2 - Source Sediments


Contrary to a popular belief, dead dinosaurs do
NOT turn into oil. Since almost all oil comes
from rocks that were formed underwater,
floating ocean life (tiny, tiny creatures known as
diatoms, foraminifera, and radiolaria - all just as
small as a grain of sand) that settle to the bottom
of the sea is what eventually turns into oil. How
could something so small give us so much oil?
Well, it takes many thousands of years (and
millions of dead critters) to form thick deposits
of organic-rich sludge at the bottom of the
ocean. But how does this sludge turn into oil?
For the answer, see "maturation".

Step 1 - Energy Capture

In spite of some
popular
misconceptions, oil
doesn't come from
dead dinosaurs. In
fact, most scientists
agree that oil comes
from creatures the
size of a pinhead.
These one-celled
creatures, known as
diatoms, aren't
really plants, but
share one very
important
characteristic with
them - they take
light from the sun
and convert it into
energy. (Humans
can't do this - this is
why you have to eat
your veggies!)

Side view of a typical diatom, the energy-trapping organism


generally thought to be the origin of oil.

photo copyright 2001 by Dee Breger at the Lamont-Doherty


Earth Observatory

Diatoms float in the top few meters of the oceans (and lakes, for that matter which is part of the reason why not ALL oil comes from ocean deposits!) and
also happen to be a major source of food for many forms of ocean swimmers.
Their skeletons are chemically very similar to sand - in fact, they are made of the
same material (silica). Diatoms produce a kind of oil by themselves - both to
store chemical energy from photosynthesis and to increase their ability to float.
But this small amount of oil still needs to become concentrated and mature
before it can be taken from the ground and used as fuel.
Move ahead to Step 2

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