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"Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear." Hebrews 11:3
Chapter II - The Framework
Interpretation geophysicists, like all scientists, work within a series
of frameworks. These frameworks vary across different spatial and temporal scales, and include
different data types and processes. The comprehensive nature of modern scientific frameworks for
oil exploration are shown by simply listing them. The frameworks, required for successful hydrocarbon
exploration, include:
- available data, type of data;
- geographic location;
- geologic age;
- basin tectonic (setting where the basin is relative to tectonic plates);
- structural style (type of expected faulting);
- stratigraphy cycles (how sedimentary rocks are deposited,
specifically related to sea-level rise and fall due to ice ages);
- stratal patterns (seismic reflection configurations);
- the external geometric form of a stratigraphic sequence (sheet, wedge, lens, fan, channel fill, etc.);
- porosity (size of fluid filled pores in rock) and permeability (connection of fluid filled pores);
- petrography (quartz, feldspar, heavy metals, etc.);
- color;
- rock system (sands, shales, carbonates, evaporates like salt and gypsum, etc.);
- grain size (bolder > 10 cm, pebble 10 mm – 10 cm, gravel 2mm – 10 mm,
sand (1/16 mm – 2 mm), silt 1/256 mm – 1/16 mm, clay < 1/256 mm);
- paleo-bathymetry and paleo-topography (depth of sea and height of
mountains at the time of deposition or erosion);
- depositional environment (rivers, swamps, beaches, deep water submarine fans or fine sediment, etc.);
- type of source rocks (type of organic material);
- type of seal rocks and type of reservoir rocks;
- type of structural traps (folds and faults);
- type of stratigraphic traps (ocean currents, sand dunes (eolian), biogenic reefs, etc.);
- type of diagenetic traps (type of chemical replacement of rocks, etc.);
- type of unconformity trap; type of pressure traps; etc.
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paradoxes