Geochemical assessment of hydrocarbon migration phenomena: Case studies from the south-western margin of the Dead Sea Basin

Mineralogical Diversity of Ca2SiO4-Bearing Combustion Metamorphic Rocks in the Hatrurim Basin: Implications for Storage and Partitioning of Elements in Oil Shale Clinkering

“…The Masada-Zohar block stores small commercial gas fields and non-commercial heavy and light oil. The geological descriptions of different MZ complexes and the models explaining their origin have been largely published [1,4,25,40,[47][48][49][50][51]69,74]. The Hatrurim CM complex is remarkable among other MZ in the abundance of high-and ultrahigh-temperature rocks, including diverse paralavas, as well as in the presence of multiple outcrops of Ca2SiO4-bearing clinker-like CM rocks (Figures 2 and 3).…”

“…Burg et al [48] divided the sequence of the MZ rocks into four mapping units and revealed spatial distribution of different types of CM rocks within the Hatrurim Basin. The basal strata are mainly composed of diverse brecciated and hydrothermally altered sedimentary (indurated chalk-like masses, indurated marls, limestone, less abundant chert and phosphorite) and metasedimentary rocks [1,50,51,64], which are crisscrossed by numerous veinlets [1, 67,69]. At the level of 10-40 m above the top of the sedimentary section, they include numerous subhorizontal bodies of highly-resistant gehlenite hornfelses (thickness up to 2 m and length up to 50-100 m) [48,64].…”

“…Their stratigraphic equivalents in Jordan appear as bioproductive chalky-marly sediments of the Muwaqqar Fm, which are sedimentary precursors of CM spurrite marbles [3,6,77,78]. The Ghareb Fm bituminous chalks (oil shales) are hypersaline shallow marine sediments mainly consisting of biogenic calcite with minor contributions of detrital quartz, clay minerals, apatite or phosphorite matter, and pyrite ( Figure 4 The Maastrichtian bioproductive chalks and marls contain 8.52 wt % of total organic carbon (TOC) on average, with S-rich (up to 12 wt %) type II kerogen organic matter consisting of degraded marine algae and phytoplankton [3,69,73,78,79]. Correspondingly, the rocks are rich in sulfide sulfur (and/or products of its oxidation): 3.77 wt % SO3 on average ( Table 4).…”

A hibonite-spinel-corundum-hematite assemblage in plagioclase-clinopyroxene pyrometamorphic rocks, Hatrurim Basin, Israel: mineral chemistry, genesis and formation temperatures

“…The Upper Cretaceous – Lower Tertiary marine sediments cover the area almost continuously and consist of limestone, chalk (including bituminous varieties), and dolomite with marl, phosphorite and chert intercalations (Zeigler, 2001; Hall et al , 2005). The widths of Dead Sea Transform-related damage zones, consisting of minor fault fractures and fracture networks, range from metres to several hundreds of metres, and control the ascending fluid flow from subsurface (Gardosh et al, 1997; Gvirtzman and Stanislavsky, 2000; Sokol et al , 2014 c ). The ongoing activity appears as saline springs and methane outbursts from shallow wells, as well as famous asphalt floating blocks and ‘springs’ in the southern Dead Sea (Nissenbaum and Goldberg, 1980).…”

Heavy carbon travertine related to methane generation: A case study of the Big Tarkhan cold spring, Kerch Peninsula, Crimea

“…The fluid enrichment patterns with increasing temperatures measured by You et al (1996) in an autoclave system at 25-350°C match those from mud volcanoes triggered by deep-seated fluids (Deyhle and Kopf, 2001). Note that genetic information of this kind is retrievable from isotope geochemistry of both water (or gas) and carbonate minerals it precipitated (Abanda and Hannigan, 2006;Webb et al, 2009;Azmy et al, 2011;Sokol et al, 2014).…”