Multidisciplinary database of permeability of fault zones and surrounding protolith rocks at world-wide sites

Abstract

Brittle faults and fault zones are important fluid flow conduits through the upper part of Earth's crust that are involved in many well-known phenomena (e.g. earthquakes, thermal water and gas transport, or water leakage to underground tunnels). the permeability property, or the ability of porous materials to conduct water and gas, is one of the key parameters required in understanding and predicting fluid flow. Although close to a thousand studies have been done, and permeability tested in parts of fault zones, a sytematic summary and database is lacking. this data descriptor is for a multidisciplinary worldwide compilation and review of bulk and matrix permeability of fault zones: 410 datasets, 521 reviewed sites, 379 locations, >10000 publications searched. The review covers studies of faulting processes, geothermal engineering, radioactive waste repositories, groundwater resources, petroleum reservoirs, and underground engineering projects. the objectives are to stimulate the cross-disciplinary data sharing and communication about fault zone hydrogeology, document the biases and strategies for testing of fault zones, and provide the basic statistics of permeability values for models that require these parameters.

On the morphology and amplitude of 2D and 3D thermal anomalies induced by buoyancy-driven flow within and around fault zones

“…In the shallow crust, several geological systems meet the necessary conditions for the occurrence of significant deep fluid circulation. Tectonically active systems, ash-flow calderas, sedimentary basins, and especially crustal fault zones correspond to dynamic systems that are sufficiently porous and permeable to host fluid circulation (e.g., Simms and Garven, 2004;Hutnak et al, 2009;Lopez et al, 2016;Patterson et al, 2018a;Duwiquet et al, 2019). As soon as rock permeability is large enough, meteoric, metamorphic, or magmatic fluids can flow along kilometer-scale pathways at velocities reaching up to several meters per year (e.g., Forster and Smith, 1989;López and Smith, 1995).…”

Modelling of Long-term Along-fault Flow of CO2 From a Natural Reservoir

“…In mudrocks, a fault usually consists of a narrow fault core (where most of the displacement occurs), surrounded by a wider fault damage zone consisting of fractures with small or no displacement, potentially forming a connected fracture network that can act as a vertical flow conduit through the mudrock [13]. Shear displacement, ductile deformation and gouge formation lead to fault cores in mudrocks that have permeabilities comparable to, or less than, the surrounding host rock [14]. DETECT takes a multiscale approach from fine-scale (single fractures) to meso-scale (fracture networks in a single seal) to site-scale (fault zones, multiple reservoir-seal pairs).…”

Thermo‐Mechanical State of Ultraslow‐Spreading Ridges With a Transient Magma Supply

“…In fact, extrapolating permeability measurements from the uppermost 1.5 km of the oceanic crust down to depths >5 km yields values well below -18 m 2 (Kuang and Jiao, 2014), which amount to subcritical Rayleigh numbers incompatible with deep hydrothermal convection (Lowell and Germanovich, 2004). While greater permeability is plausible within the damage zone of detachment faults (e.g., Scibek, 2020), an average permeability of ~510 -16 m in the bulk of the lithosphere down to 15 km depth --as required for off-fault hydrothermal recharge in the model of Tao et al (2020)--exceeds predictions of the Kuang and Jiao (2014) model by over 4 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, seismic evidence for hydration of the oceanic lithosphere (outside of subduction zone settings) is typically restricted to a few km below seafloor.…”