Date of Award

4-2019

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Geological and Environmental Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Michelle A. Kominz

Second Advisor

Dr. William B. Harrison III

Third Advisor

Dr. William Sauck

Keywords

Michigan, seismic, geology, geophysics, reefs

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The Silurian Niagaran Pinnacle Reefs of the Michigan Basin retain their relevance after primary recovery of hydrocarbons and are excellent candidates for carbon dioxide sequestration, natural gas storage, and enhanced oil recovery. Due to the nature of carbonate rocks, these reef complexes are heterogeneous and lateral interpolation between observations in wells, is ambiguous. Ambiguity has led to large uncertainty and disagreement regarding reef architectures and their internal facies distributions. Previous models of these reef complexes have relied almost entirely on well logs and conventional core. This study focused on integrating 3D seismic reflection data to reduce uncertainty when delineating the overall shape of the Charlton 30-31 reef complex. For this study, seismic attributes extracted from the 3D seismic data were pivotal when investigating the on-reef and off-reef characteristic of the 3D seismic data. The Charlton 30-31 reef complex displayed an asymmetrical overall architecture, with discontinuous seismic signatures within the reef interior. However, the internal facies of the reef were determined to be under the detection limit of the seismic data. This study demonstrates the value of 3D seismic data and seismic attributes when investigating the overall architecture of a reef complex without abundant well control.

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