Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:46:43.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ammonium fixation during illite-smectite diagenesis in Upper Jurassic shale, North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

Abstract

Claystones of Kimmeridgian-Volgian-Ryazanian age are the main source rock for oil in the Central Trough, North Sea. During oil generation, illite layers form in illite-smectite (I-S) and the illitesmectites become short-range (IS) ordered and eventually long-range (ISII) ordered. The formation of illite layers involves dehydration and fixation of interlayer cations, K+ and NH4+. The content of soluble NH4 and K in core samples and the content of NH4 and K in I-S were determined, the NH4 by an isotope dilution method. In the Central Trough, soluble K+ decreases with depth, whereas soluble NH4+ increases with depth. From ∼3 km, the ratio NH4/K increases with depth, to an average of ∼0.5 at 4.4 km. In I-S, the ratio NH4/K shows a similar increase with depth. The NH4/K ratio increases significantly in I-S during ordering. It is concluded that NH4 fixation in I-S may be of general importance during burial diagenesis of oil source rocks.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J.U. (1963) An improved pretreatment for mineralogical analysis of samples containing organic matter. Clays Clay Miner. 10, 380388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernas, B. (1968) A new method for decomposition and comprehensive analysis of silicates by atomic absorption spectrometry. Anal. Chem. 40, 16821686.Google Scholar
Bethrke, C.M. & Reynolds, R.C. (1986) Recursive method for determining frequency factors in interstratified clay diffraction calculations. Clays Clay Miner. 34, 224226.Google Scholar
Bogomolov, G.V., Kudelskiy, A.V. & Kozlov, M.F. (1970) The ammonium ion as an indicator of oil and gas. Dokl. Acad. Nauk SSSR 195, 938940.Google Scholar
Chourabi, B. & Fripiat, J.J. (1981) Determinations of tetrahedral substitutions and interlayer surface heterogeneity from vibrational spectra of ammonium in smectites. Clays Clay Miner. 29, 260268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J.E. & Abemn, K.Z. (1981) The relationship between fixed ammonium-nitrogen and potassium in clays from a deep well on the Texas Gulf Coast. Texas J. Sci. 33, 103111.Google Scholar
Ooper, J.E. & Evans, W.S. (1983) Ammonium-nitrogen in Green River Formation oil shale. Science, 219, 492493.Google Scholar
Ooper, J.E., & Raabe, B.A. (1982) The effect of thermal gradient on the distribution of nitrogen in a shale. Texas J. Sci. 34, 175182.Google Scholar
Daniels, E.J. (1989) Origin and Distribution of Minerals in Shale and Coal from the Anthracite Region, Eastern Pennsylvania. Urbana, University of Illinois, 97pp.Google Scholar
Daniels, E.J. & Altaner, S.P. (1990) Clay mineral authigenesis in coal and shale from the Anthracite region, Pennsylvania. Am. Miner. 75, 825839.Google Scholar
Eberl, D. (1978) The reaction of montmorillonite to mixed layer clay: the effect of interlayer alkali and alkaline earth cations. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta, 42, 17.Google Scholar
Eberl, D. (1986) Sodium-potassium ion exchange during smectite diagenesis-A theoretical discussion. Pp. 363- 368 in: Studies in Diagenesis (Mumpton, F.A., editor), US Geol. Surv. Bull, 1578.Google Scholar
Hansen, P.L. & Lindgreen, H. (1989) Mixed-layer illite/ smectite diagenesis in Upper Jurassic claystones from the North Sea and onshore Denmark. Clay Miner. 24, 197213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heling, D. & TeichmüLLER, K. (1974) Die Grenze Montmorillonit- Mixed Layer-Minerale und ihre Beziehung zur Inkohlung in der grauen Schichtenfolge des Oligozans im Oberrheingraben. Fortschr. Geol. Rheinld. u. Westf. 27, 113128.Google Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E.V., Hower, M.E. & Perry, E.A. (1976) Mechanism of burial metamorphism of argillaceous sediment: 1. Mineralogical and chemical evidence. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 87, 725737.Google Scholar
Hunt, J.M. (1979) Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology. W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco.Google Scholar
Huster, T.C., Brown, P.E. & Bailey, S.W. (1987) NH4- bearing illite in very low grade metamorphic rocks associated with coal, northeastern Pennsylvania. Am. Miner. 72, 555565.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H. (1991) Elemental and structural changes in illite/smectite mixed-layer clay minerals during diagenesis in Kimmeridgian-Volgian (-Ryazanian) clays in the Central Trough, North Sea and the Norwegian-Danish Basin. Bull. Geol. Soc. Denmark, 39, 142.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H. & Hansen, P.L. (1991) Ordering of illitesmectite in Upper Jurassic claystones from the North Sea. Clay Miner. 26, 105125.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H., Hansen, P.L. & Jakobsen, H.J. (1989) Formation of illite layers in Upper Jurassic I/S in the North Sea Central Trough claystone oil source rocks. Clay Minerals Society 26th Annual Meeting, Sacramento, Program and Abstracts Annual Clay Minerals Conference 26, (Post, J.L., editor), California State University, p. 47.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H., Jacobsen, H. & Jakobsen, H.J. (1991) Diagenetic structural transformation in North Sea Jurassic illite/smectite. Clays Clay Miner. 39, 5469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middelboe, V., (1977) Determination of trace amounts of total nitrogen by isotope dilution. Pp. 239-243 in: Stable lsotopes in the Life Science, Proc. Technical Committee Meeting on Biological Applications of Stable Isotopes, Leipzig 1977, International Atomic Agency, Council for Mutal Economic Assistance.Google Scholar
Middelboe, V. & Johansen, H.S. (1991) Analysis of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen isotope ratios by optical emission spectrometry. Pp. 433-463 in: Soil Analysis. Modern Instrumental Techniques, (Smith, K.A., editor), M. Dekker, New York.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.C. Jr. (1984) Interstratified clay minerals. Pp. 249-305 in: Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals and their X-ray Identification, (Brindley, G.W. & Brown, G., editors). Mineralogical Society, London.Google Scholar
Sterne, E.J., Reynolds, R.J. Jr. & Zantop, H. (1982) Natural ammonium illites from black shales hosting a stratiform base metal deposit, Delong Mountains, Northern Alaska. Clays Clay Miner. 30, 161166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, F.J. (1960) Nitrogenous constituents of some Paleozoic shales (abstract). Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Bull. 44, 1257.Google Scholar
Stevenson, F.J. (1962) Chemical state of the nitrogen in rocks. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 26, 797809.Google Scholar
Thomsen, E., Lindggeen, H. & WRAN6 P. (1983) Investigation on the source rock potential of Denmark. Geol. Mijnbouw, 62, 221239.Google Scholar
Vedoer, W. (1965) Ammonium in muscovite. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 29, 221228.Google Scholar
Weaver, C.E. & Beck, K.C. (1971) Clay water diagenesis during burial: how mud becomes gneiss. Geol. Soc. Amer. Spec. Pap. 134, 178.Google Scholar
Wiklander, L. (1964) Cation and anion exchange phenomena. Pp. 163-205 in: Chemistry of the Soil (Bear, F.E., editor), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.Google Scholar
Williams, L.B. & Ferrell, R.E. Jr. (1991) Ammonium substitution in illite during maturation of organic matter. Clays Clay Miner. 39, 400408.Google Scholar
Williams, L.B., Ferrell, R.E. Jr., Chinn, E.W. & Sassen, R. (1989) Fixed-ammonium in clays associated with crude oils. Appl. Geochem. 4, 605–616.Google Scholar
Williams, L.B., Wilcoxon, B.R., Ferrell, R.E. & Sassen, R. (1992) Diagenesis of ammonium during hydrocarbon maturation and migration, Wilcox Group, Louisiana, USA. Appl. Geochem. 7, 123-134.Google Scholar