The Molasse Basin is one of the most promising areas for deep geothermal exploitation in Germany and the target horizon is the aquifer in the Upper Jurassic carbonates. Carbonate deposits can be very heterogeneous even over a small area due to diagenetic processes and varying depositional environments. The preferential targets for geothermal exploitation in carbonate deposits are fault zones, reef facies and karstified areas, since they are expected to act as hydraulically permeable zones due to high porosity and high permeability. Therefore, identifying these structures and characterizing, e.g., their internal porosity distribution are of high importance. This can be accomplished using 3D reflection seismic data. Besides structural information, 3D seismic surveys provide important reservoir properties, such as acoustic impedance, from which a porosity model can be derived. In our study area in Munich we carried out a seismic amplitude inversion to get an acoustic impedance model of the Upper Jurassic carbonate reservoir using a 3D seismic data set, a corresponding structural geological model, and logging data from six wells at the ‘Schäftlarnstraße’ geothermal site. The impedance model and porosity logs were than used to calculate a porosity model. The model shows a wide porosity range from 0 to 20% for the entire reservoir zone and the lithology along the wells reveals that dolomitic limestone has the highest porosities and calcareous dolomite has the lowest porosities. The study area is cut by a large W–E striking fault, the Munich Fault, and the footwall north of it shows higher porosities and more intense karstification than the hanging wall to the south. Considering the entire study area, an increase in porosity from east to west is observed. Furthermore, we identified a complex porosity distribution in reef buildups and pinnacle reefs. The reef cores have mostly low porosities of, e.g., < 3% and the highest porosities of up to 7 to 14% are observed at the reef caps and on the reef slopes. The reef slopes show a characteristic interfingering of the reef facies with the surrounding bedded facies, which indicates a syn-sedimentary reef development with slightly varying build up growth rates. We also assessed the reservoir quality with regard to porosity distribution and determined areas with moderate to good quality for geothermal exploitation by defining porosity evaluation levels. The porosity evaluation maps show that the carbonate rocks of Berriasian to Malm $$\zeta$$ ζ 1 are preferential targets for exploitation, especially in the footwall of the Munich Fault and to the west of the hanging wall, because these areas are characterized by high porosities due to intense karstification of bedded and massive facies, although the latter is mainly restricted to reef caps and reef slopes.

No abstract

In a large seismic cube within the German Alpine Molasse Basin, we recognize large normal faults with lateral alternating dips that displace the Molasse sediments. They are disconnected but strike parallel to fault lineaments of the underlying carbonate platform. This raises the question how such faults could independently develop. Structural analysis suggests that the faults grew both upward and downward from the middle of the Molasse package, i.e., they newly initiated within the Molasse sediments and were not caused by reactivation of the faults in the carbonate platform and/or crystalline basement. Numerical modeling of the basin proves that temporarily and spatially confined extensional stresses existed within the Molasse sediments but not in the carbonate platform and basement during lithospheric bending. The workflow shown here gives a new and as yet undocumented insight in the tectonic and structural processes within a foreland basin that was affected by buckling and bending in front of the orogen.

A B S T R A C TA 3D seismic survey was recorded in 2012 to explore a petrothermal reservoir in a late-Variscan granitic pluton within the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in Saxony, Germany. The main objective was to test this area in the context of the Enhanced Geothermal System concept and to test the 3D seismic technique as an exploration tool. The intention and challenge are to image and characterize potentially permeable fracture zones at target depths of 5-6 km, with temperatures above 150°C. Unconventional methods were applied for field acquisition and data processing. The vibroseis technique was used in the core experiment, accompanied by a special explosive seismic experiment. Field acquisition was characterized by severe noise conditions and a highly irregular layout. These conditions required extensive preprocessing and data conditioning. The imaging started with conventional Common Midpoint processing for quality control and for a first reference. Better images were obtained by Common Reflection Surface processing with subsequent post-stack time migration. Prestack time migration was also used for comparison. Outstanding results were obtained by the 'operator-oriented' version of the Common Reflection Surface technique. A rich repertoire of structures within the granite pluton was imaged, including steeply dipping fault zones and conjugate faults. Images and indications of fracture and crack porosity of a prominent fault zone provide the background to define an optimum drill path. This is considered as the next stage for a possible geothermal plant, if a decision is taken to drill a research well in the future. The 3D seismic reflection technique was shown to be an indispensable tool for geothermal exploration, even in crystalline basement rocks.

Abstract. We use three-dimensional seismic reflection data from the southern German Molasse Basin to investigate the structural style and evolution of a geometrically decoupled fault network in close proximity to the Alpine deformation front. We recognise two fault arrays that are vertically separated by a clay-rich layer – lower normal faults and upper normal and reverse faults. A frontal thrust fault partially overprints the upper fault array. Analysis of seismic stratigraphy, syn-kinematic strata, throw distribution, and spatial relationships between faults suggest a multiphase fault evolution: (1) initiation of the lower normal faults in the Upper Jurassic carbonate platform during the early Oligocene, (2) development of the upper normal faults in the Cenozoic sediments during the late Oligocene, and (3) reverse reactivation of the upper normal faults and thrusting during the mid-Miocene. These distinct phases document the evolution of the stress field as the Alpine orogen propagated across the foreland. We postulate that interplay between the horizontal compression and vertical stresses due to the syn-sedimentary loading resulted in the intermittent normal faulting. The vertical stress gradients within the flexed foredeep defined the independent development of the upper faults above the lower faults, whereas mechanical behaviour of the clay-rich layer precluded the subsequent linkage of the fault arrays. The thrust fault must have been facilitated by the reverse reactivation of the upper normal faults, as its maximum displacement and extent correlate with the occurrence of these faults. We conclude that the evolving tectonic stresses were the primary mechanism of fault activation, whereas the mechanical stratigraphy and pre-existing structures locally governed the structural style.