Flow system of the Hutton sandstone in the northern Surat Basin, Australia

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 28 - Trang 89-102 - 2020
Sue Vink1,2, Jim Underschultz2, Sam Guiton3, Juan Xu2, Vahab Honari2
1Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
2Centre for Coal Seam Gas, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
3QGC, Brisbane, Australia

Tóm tắt

Newly acquired high-quality data are being used to reinterpret the Surat Basin flow systems of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) in Australia. This paper revisits and updates previous interpretations of flow in the Hutton Sandstone with detailed analysis of the Dawson River area in the northern Surat Basin. Combining analysis of high-resolution permeability measurements with hydraulic head and hydrochemistry data supports the contention that there is significant flow towards the northeast, counter to the canonical regional flow conceptualisation of the GAB. The analysis in this work better identifies the likely discharge to be in the area that the Dawson River intersects the Hutton Sandstone. Heterogeneity in physical and hydrochemical properties suggests that local flowpaths are more complex than previously thought and, at least in this part of the Hutton aquifer, very little recharge contributes to flow deeper in the basin. These results provide a firm basis on which to refine and develop numerical hydrodynamic models of the basin, at least for the Hutton aquifer.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Baublys KA, Hamilton SK, Golding SD, Vink S, Esterle J (2015) Microbial controls on the origin and evolution of coal seam gases and production waters of the Walloon subgroup: Surat Basin, Australia. Int J Coal Geol 147–148:85–104 Baublys KA, Hamilton SK, Hofmann H, Golding SD (2019) A strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopic study on the chemical evolution and migration of groundwaters in a low-rank coal seam gas reservoir (Surat Basin, Australia). Appl Geochem 101:1–18 Bianchi V, Zhou F, Pistellato D, Martin M, Boccardo S, Esterle J (2018) Mapping a coastal transition in braided systems: an example from the precipice sandstone, Surat Basin AU. Aust J Earth Sci 65(4):483–502 Bianchi V, Pistellato D, Job A, Esterle J (2019) Regional geological study of the Hutton Sandstone. ANLEC 07–116-0294 final report, ANLEC, Barton, Australia Cloutier V, Lefebvre R, Therrien R, Savard MM (2008) Multivariate statistical analysis of geochemical data as indicative of the hydrogeochemical evolution of groundwater in a sedimentary rock aquifer system. J Hydrol 353:294–313 Dafny E (2016) The Great Artesian Basin: is it that great? Hydrogeol J 24(6):1329–1332 Draper JJ, Boreham CJ (2006) Geological controls on exploitable coal seam gas distribution in Queensland. APPEA J 46:343–366 Freeze A, Cherry JA (1979) Groundwater. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Grigorescu M (2011) Mineralogy of the south-eastern Bowen Basin and northeastern Surat Basin, Queensland. Queensland geological record 2011/02, Queensland Government, Brisbane, Australia Guiton S, Kieft R, Chrurchill J, Sheerin C (2015) Characterising the Hutton Sandstone in northeastern Surat Basin. AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery, AAPG, Tulsa, OK Habermehl MA (1980) The Great Artesian Basin, Australia. BMR J Aust Geol Geophys 5:9–38 Habermehl MA (2002) Hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry and isotope hydrology of the Great Artesian Basin. Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, Australia Habermehl MA (2006) Case study: the Great Artesian Basin, Australia. In: Foster S, Loucks DP (eds) Non-renewable groundwater resources: a guidebook on socially-sustainable management for water-policy makers. IHP-VI Series on Groundwater, UNESCO, Paris, pp 82–88 Hamilton SK, Esterle JS, Golding SD (2012) Geological interpretation of gas content trends, Walloon subgroup, eastern Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia. Int J Coal Geol 101:21–35 Hamilton SK, Esterle JS, Sliwa R (2014) Stratigraphic and depositional framework of the Walloon subgroup, eastern Surat Basin, Queensland. Aust J Earth Sci 61(8):1061–1080 Herczeg AL, Torgensen T, Chivas AR, Habermehl MA (1991) Geochemistry of groundwaters from the Great Artesian Basin, Australia. J Hydrol 126:225–245 Hitchon B, Hays J (1971) Hydrodynamics and hydrocarbon occurrences, Surat Basin, Queensland, Australia. Water Resour Res 7(3):658–676 Hitchon B, and Brulotte M (1994) Culling criteria for standard formation water analyses. Applied Geochemistry, 9: 637-645 Hodgkinson J, Grigorescu M (2013) Background research for selection of potential geostorage targets: case studies from the Surat Basin, Queensland. Aust J Earth Sci 60(1):71–89 Hodgkinson J, Hortle A, McKillop M (2010) The application of hydrodynamic analysis in the assessment of regional aquifers for carbon geostorage: preliminary results for the Surat Basin, Queensland. APPEA J 50:445–462 Hortle A, Otto C, Underschultz J (2013) A quality control system to reduce uncertainty in interpreting formation pressures for reservoir and basin pressure system analysis. J Pet Geol 36:163–177 Kakwani NC, Podder N (1976) Efficient estimation of the Lorenz curve and associated inequality measures from grouped observations. Econometrica 44(1):137–148 Mallants D, Jeffrey R, Zhang X, Wu B, Kear J, Chen Z, Wu B, Bekele E, Raiber M, Apte S, Gray B (2018) Review of chemical migration pathways from North American and European shale gas basins and Australian coal seam gas basins. Int J Coal Geol 195:280–303 OGIA (2012) Underground water impact report for the Surat cumulative management area. Queensland Water Commission, Brisbane, Australia OGIA (2016) Underground water impact report for the Surat cumulative management area, Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Brisbane, Australia Owen DD, Pawlowsky-Glahn V, Egozcue JJ, Buccianti A, Bradd JM (2016a) Compositional data analysis as a robust tool to delineate hydrochemical facies within and between gas-bearing aquifers. Water Resour Res 52(8):5771–5793 Owen DDR, Shouakar-Stash O, Morgenstern U, Aravena R (2016b) Thermodynamic and hydrochemical controls on CH4 in a coal seam gas and overlying alluvial aquifer: new insights into CH4 origins. Sci Rep 6:32407 Owen DDR, Millot R, Négrel P, Meredith K, Cox ME (2015) Stable isotopes of lithium as indicators of coal seam gas-bearing aquifers. Proc Earth Planet Sci 13:278–281 Quarantotto P (1989) Hydrogeology of Surat Basin, Queensland. Queensland Dept. of Mines, Brisbane, Australia Radke BM, Ferguson J, Creswell RG, Ransley TR, Habermehl M (2000) Hydrochemistry and implied hydrodynamics of the Cadna-owie - Hooray aquifer, Great Artesian Basin, Australia. BoR Sciences, Canberra Raiber M, Suckow A (2017) Hydrochemical assessment of the Hutton and Precipice sandstones in the northern Surat Basin. CISRO, Canberra Ransley T, Somerville P, Tan K, Feitz A, Cook S, Yates G, Schoning G, Caruana L, Sundaram B, Wallace L (2015) Groundwater hydrochemical characterisation of the Surat Region and Laura Basin: Queensland. Record 2015/05, Geoscience Australia, Canberra Ransley TR, Smerdon BD (2012) Hydrostratigraphy, hydrogeology and system conceptualisation of the Great Artesian Basin. A technical report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Assessment. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Canberra Siade A, Prommer H, Suckow A, Raiber M (2018) Using numerical groundwater Modelling to constrain flow rates and flow paths in the Surat Basin through environmental tracer data. CSIRO, Canberra Suckow A, Taylor A, Davies P, Leaney F (2016) Geochemical baseline monitoring. Final report, CSIRO, Canberra Suckow A, Raiber M, Deslandes A, Gerber C (2018) Constraining conceptual groundwater models for the Hutton and precipice aquifers in the Surat Basin through tracer data. CSIRO, Canberra Towler B, Firouzi M, Underschultz J, Rifkin W, Garnett A, Schultz H, Esterle J, Tyson S, Witt K (2016) An overview of the coal seam gas developments in Queensland. J Natural Gas Sci Eng 31:249–271 Vink S, Hunter J, Esterle JS, Brooking C, Yu D, Reading L, Wolhuter A, Zheng J, Kohler M, and Underschultz J (2014) Water Chemistry Atlas for CSG Fields. Phase 1. Investigating the Utility of a Water Chemistry Atlas for the Surat CSG Areas Final Report Vink S (2019) The water atlas. www.wateratlas.net. Accessed December 2018