New insights into lithology and hydrogeology of the northern Newark Rift Basin

Abstract

The marginal facies of the Triassic rift basins in the eastern United States are poorly documented, particularly on the hinge or hanging wall margins. This study presents a lithological description and multiscale petrophysical analysis of basement rocks, overlying marginal facies of the early synrift strata, and the basal contact of the Palisade Sill that were drilled and cored in the northeastern part of the Newark Basin, near its terminus. The expression of the Stockton Formation differs from that in the central basin in having thinner layers, with uncertain temporal relationship to the type area. The bottom 50 m is lithologically distinct with brick‐red to dark‐purple mudstones and sandstones, abundant gypsum‐filled fractures, and a thin zone with anomalously high uranium concentration, not associated with organic‐rich mudstones as other occurrences in the basin. The crystalline basement is apparently Fordham gneiss, overlain by a thin sandstone layer and a dark‐purple hydrophilic mudstone. Despite the abundance of coarse‐grained strata and multiple sets of tectonic fractures, hydraulically transmissive zones are sparse, and do not uniquely correlate to fracture and/or matrix characteristics. Enhanced transmissivity may exist along intrusion boundaries due to enhanced thermal fracturing, but more hydraulic data are needed to verify it. Comparison of petrophysical data in two boreholes ∼210 m apart shows no direct correlation of individual lithological units and their hydraulic properties, although the overall formation characteristics are similar. The results highlight challenges for outcrop correlation at the marginal edges of the rift basins and estimating reservoir properties of these heterogeneous formations.

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“…The Appalachian-Ouachita orogenic belt also has active serpentinization of peridotites and significant lithospheric LWMAs ( Fig. 10 ) ( Husch, 1990 ; Menke et al, 2018 ; Zakharova et al, 2016 ). The pandemic also spread easterly, albeit less severe outbreaks in basins on the Korean Peninsula, the Island of Japan, and the western portion of the North America plate ( Fig.…”

Reservoir and sealing properties of the Newark rift basin formations: Implications for carbon sequestration

“…Hydraulic tests (Lamont test wells 3 and 4) in the marginal Stockton Formation, which is generally characterized by higher core porosity and permeability than in the central basin ( Figure 6), showed little to no flow in most of the high-porosity sandstones, even at relatively shallow depths of 200-500 m below surface . In the same depth intervals where core data indicated high porosity and permeability in the arkosic sandstones, fluid flow was either zero or below the flowmeter detection limit (0.1 L/min) under ambient conditions (Yang et al, 2014;Zakharova et al, 2016). Under injection conditions, fluid flow could be detected only in a few sparse and narrow (1-3 m thick) intervals, ranging in transmissivity from 10 -9 to 10 -5 m 2 /s.…”

“…The Palisade Sill, which is also characterized by mafic composition (primarily dolerite, or diabase) and forms an extensive and continuous body (Figures 1c and 1d), does not appear to possess enough porosity to be considered as a potential CO 2 reservoir. The sill displays many cooling joints and fractures, but they all appear either mineralized or closed at depth (Goldberg and Burgdorff, 2005;Matter et al, 2006;Zakharova et al, 2016). Such impervious sills and dykes could serve as caprock, providing *It is labeled "Newark Basin" in the paper, but the locality is identified as "… a roadside outcrop near Branford, Connecticut …" (p. 250), which is in the Hartford Basin, and a location where the second flow of the Holyoke Basalt is the only well-exposed unit.…”

“…The TriCarb study was followed by a narrower geomechanical study of the Newark Basin formations, and petrophysical results from this project are also incorporated in the paper. Finally, core analysis is complemented by the results of hydrogeologic tests performed in two shallow test wells on the campus of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University (Goldberg and Burgdorff, 2005;Matter et al, 2006;Zakharova et al, 2016). This paper is an overview of reservoir and sealing properties of the Newark Basin formations and integrates all of the analysis done by these various projects to date.…”

The “Passive” Margin of Eastern North America: Rifting and the Influence of Prerift Orogenic Activity on Postrift Development

“…Additionally, we performed compaction-based, sonictransit-time analyses for 11 wells with wireline-log data from the Newark rift basin (locations in Figure 5(b) and Table 1). This included seven wells from the Newark Basin Coring Project (NBCP) (e.g., [57,74]), two wells associated with the TriCarb Consortium for Carbon Sequestration in the northern Newark basin (New York State Thruway Authority Tandem Lot#1, TriCarb Well#4) (e.g., [58,75]), and two industry wells in the southern Newark basin (Cabot KB#1, Parestis#1). The wireline-log data for these wells are available from Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, the NY State Geological Survey, and the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, respectively.…”