Taking the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in the Changning area of the southern Sichuan Basin as an example, the characteristics and formation stages of tectonic fractures are comprehensively studied by regional scale geological analysis and microscopic scale experimental tests. Regional scale geological analysis shows that there are mainly high-angle and vertical structural fractures, which have the characteristics of small opening, large spacing, small fracture density, and high filling degree. The fracture systems can be divided into three stages and six groups, which correspond to the structural compression in the near south−north, northwest, and northeast directions. The microscopic scale experimental test analysis confirmed that the formation of tectonic fractures mainly experienced three stages of tectonic movements, namely, the Middle−Late Yanshanian tectonic movement (136− 94 million years ago (Ma)), the Late Yanshanian tectonic movement−Early Himalayan tectonic movement (94−67 Ma), and the Middle−Late Himalayan tectonic movement (67−0 Ma). The corresponding uniform temperatures of the fracture filling inclusions are 118.5−140.2, 91.6−108.5, and 73.2−82.2 °C, respectively. Based on the tectonic analysis and geomechanical principles, an evolutionary model of structural fractures was established. Fractures with early formation and high filling degree and fractures with late formation but large angle between the fracture orientation and current geostress direction are beneficial to shale gas enrichment.
The pore structure is an important factor affecting reservoir capacity and shale gas production. The shale reservoir of the Longmaxi Formation in the Changning area, Southern Sichuan Basin, is highly heterogeneous and has a complex pore structure. To quantitatively characterize the shale’s pore structure and influencing factors, based on whole rock X-ray diffraction, argon ion polishing electron microscopy observations, and low-temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption experiments, the characteristics of the shale pore structure are studied by using the Frenkel-Halsey-Hill (FHH) model. The research reveals the following: 1) The pores of the Longmaxi Formation shale mainly include organic pores, intergranular pores, dissolution pores and microfractures. The pore size is mainly micro-mesoporous. Both ink bottle-type pores and semiclosed slit-type pores with good openness exist, but mainly ink bottle-type pores are observed. 2) The pore structure of the Longmaxi Formation shale has self-similarity, conforms to the fractal law, and shows double fractal characteristics. Taking the relative pressure of 0.45 (P/P0 = 0.45) as the boundary, the surface fractal dimension Dsf and the structural fractal dimension Dst are defined. Dsf is between 2.3215 and 2.6117, and the structural fractal dimension Dst is between 2.8424 and 2.9016. The pore structure of micropores and mesopores is more complex. 3) The mineral components and organic matter have obvious control over the fractal dimension of shale, and samples from different wells show certain differences. The fractal dimension has a good positive correlation with the quartz content but an obvious negative correlation with clay minerals. The higher the total organic carbon content is, the higher the degree of thermal evolution, the more complex the pore structure of shale, and the larger the fractal dimension. The results have guiding significance for the characterization of pore structure of tight rocks.
Currently, energy and its usage are the primary environmental issues in all countries and regions. As a special social group, university students not only have extremely high energy consumption needs, but they have more advanced consumption concepts. Understanding their energy-saving characteristics could provide foresight for predicting the energy-saving characteristics of future residents. Using data collected from 737 valid questionnaires, from five typical universities in Macau, this study investigated university students' energy-saving behaviors, attitudes and awareness, and analyzed the possible influencing factors. The results showed that the energy-saving behaviors and attitudes of respondents from five university were nearly the same. Meanwhile, 75.98% of the respondents clearly recognized that energy-savings behaviors are closely related to their daily study and life, and 96.61% of the university students thought that it is very necessary to save energy. In addition, 92.94% of students thought it was necessary to carry out energy-saving education in universities. The regression analysis indicated that “the relationship between energy-saving awareness and daily life” and “the necessity of energy-saving education” are positively correlated with the energy-saving awareness at the significance level of 1%, whereas the energy-saving behaviors, “give priority to energy-saving products” and “shut down your computer when going out”, are positively correlated with energy-saving awareness at the significance level of 10% and 5%, respectively. Finally, we proposed effective suggestions for raising the awareness of saving energy among university students.
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