When Geology Meets Petroleum
There are many ways the field of Geology contributes to the Petroleum Industry. The varied disciplines of Geology explore the history of the Earth itself in hopes of understanding in greater detail where oil comes from and where more oil might be found, as well as the best ways to retrieve oil and utilize it once it has been retrieved.
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Sedimentology studies sand, mud (or silt) and clay, and the various ways they are deposited. Using these studies, sedimentologists apply their understanding of modern processes to ancient rock, to try to understand how it formed.Most of the rocks on earth are sedimentary rocks, and it is in these kinds of rocks you find fossils and many of the other historical markers. Sedimentary rocks are also where petroleum deposits are found.
Sedimentology is tied to stratigraphy, which studies the relationships between rock layers and how they can shift and move. This also affects where petroleum deposits can be found, as well as how the extraction of petroleum affects the sediment around the deposit.
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Structural Geology
Structural geology is the study of the three dimensional distribution of large bodies of rock, their surfaces, and the composition of their inside in order to try and learn about their tectonic history, past geological environments and events that could have changed or deformed them. These can be dated to determine when the structural features formed.
If the nature of these rocks can be determined, petroleum geologists can discover if petroleum, natural gas, or other natural resources are trapped within the rocks.
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Paleontology and Biostratigraphy
Paleontology, or palaeontology, is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised faeces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues.Biostratigraphy uses those fossils, tracks, and other finds in an effort to figure out how old a certain layer of rock and sediment is.
Once a petroleum geologists knows how old a particular area is, they know the potential for finding natural resources such as oil or natural gas.
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Geochemistry
The field of geochemistry involves study of the chemical composition of the Earth and other planets, the composition of rocks and soils, the cycles that involve the earth's chemical components, and the interaction of those cycles with land and water.Some questions geochemistry tries to answer include what elements and chemicals are present in various soils and rocks in different locations? What can we learn from those differences? How are these soils and rocks changing, and how have they changed through the centuries? How do once-living things like plants and animals decompose after their deaths and what sorts of new things do they form as they interact with the environment (such as fossils or hydrocarbons, a.k.a, oil)? How do these various processes affect the environment, and how does the environment, weather, and other influences affect them?
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Seismology and Geophysics
Geophysics is the study of the Earth using physics to determine Earth properties. Some of the physical properties studied are the earth's size and gravity, the weather and atmosphere, volcanoes and hot springs, the oceans, water in the ground, and the movements through the earth (otherwise known as seismology).Seismology studies seismic waves that move through and around the earth, including earthquakes. Geophysicists can study how these waves move and affect the earth to learn the nature of the earth deep below the surface, where it can't be directly seen. The seismic waves can be from a naturally occurring event, like an earthquake, or they can be artificially produced.
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According to the theory of Plate Tectonics, the surface of the Earth is comprised of several plates, some very large, and several smaller. The plates slowly move through time, changing size and shape. When the plates move against each other, they create geologic events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains. The type of event depends on how the plates move relative to each other.
This movement of the Earth's surface impacts where oil and natural gas deposits can be found, which is why the study of Plate Tectonics is important to Petroleum Geologists.
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Paleogeography
Paleogeography focuses on the way the earth looked in ancient times. This is done by studying layers of rock, soil, artifacts, and fossils. Paleogeographers want to learn more about the configuration and movement of the oeans and continents and what kinds of plants and animals existed through history. They study how species of plants and animals evolved, and how certain species became extinct.
These ancient plants, animals, lands and seas have left traces today that give us clues toward finding natural resources, such as oil and gas.
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Geologic Maps
Explorers have been making maps for more than four thousand years! As explorers for oil and gas, no introduction to petroleum geology is complete without first discussing the geologic map.
A geology map is used just like your handy highway map that you or your parents might keep in their car. Important data is stored on that road map – locations of cities, roads, mountains, and rivers – just to name a few. The geologic map is used in much the same way, only instead of capturing surface features such as cities and roads, the goal is to describe the subsurface. One of the most common uses for geologic maps is by construction firms, as they need to look for potential hazards such as faults before building buildings or roads.
The history of map making is a long one, but for geologists, there was one map that quite literally changed the world - William Smith’s 1815 geological map of Great Britain is the first geological map of any country in the world. One of the versions of his map is housed at the Geologic Society of London.The United States Geologic Survey and the National Park system put together a website that can walk through the fundamental elements of geologic map and how to read one.
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